


Water Beneath the Waves

by sarcasm_and_sabres



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: 2016 MLB Season, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-09-23 07:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17076143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasm_and_sabres/pseuds/sarcasm_and_sabres
Summary: "Despite centuries of disagreement, humans and their magical counterparts now live in peace with each other. Nonhumans have integrated into human society as well as continuing to live in their own isolated communities. Evidence of this peaceful cohabitation can be seen at all levels of society--such as the mural depicting Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer's heterochromia, a trait famously attributed to the fae. Gone are the days of fear and mutual distrust, as we now live in an age where these differences are something to be celebrated."Well, Jake thinks, closing the article on his phone, at least a tiny bit of that paragraph was right.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Major shoutout to the mlbnet group for encouraging this idea in the first place and then pushing me through writing it.
> 
> This is finished, so I'll hopefully be posting a chapter a day until it's done.
> 
> If you found this by searching yourself, please don't read it. This is fictional and intended solely for personal entertainment.

Slipping under the water in the Chase Field pool, Jake rolls his shoulders and feels the tension flood out of his body. If he had to get drafted by the team in the middle of the desert, he’s glad they at least have a pool that he can use. And it’s a good way to relax a couple days before the first game of the season.

“Mind if I join you?” Jake hears, and he surfaces to see David standing at the edge of the pool.

“Of course,” Jake says, brushing his hair back. David strips off his shirt but doesn’t bother with his shorts, just cannonballs into the pool with them still on. “Hey!”

“Problem, man? I didn’t figure a water spirit would have an issue with getting wet,” David teases, splashing Jake again. Jake resists the urge to retaliate with his magic and instead lunges forward to dunk David.

“Maybe it was my elf half that didn’t like it,” he retorts. David just grins at him.

“Must be a bother, trying to figure out which half of you wants what, huh?”

Jake smiles tightly, wishing it wasn’t so true. “Hey, better than being half a dumb faerie, isn’t it?”

“Rude.” David splashes him again to lighten the mood. “You ready for the season to start?”

“Beyond ready. I think we’re gonna have a good year.”

“Hard not to be confident with a guy like Zack Greinke taking the mound for us Opening Day, isn’t it?”

Jake’s smile is honest this time, tension dissipating again. “For sure. He seems like an interesting guy, but I’m looking forward to getting to know him.”

“Interesting, you can say that again,” David says with a snort. “There’s something odd about him. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something.”

Jake slides underwater again, letting the water wash over him and clear his mind a little as it always does. When he surfaces again, David’s looking at him quizzically.

“Do you think he’s one of us?” Jake asks. It might explain the oddness, and some of the rumors that have followed Greinke around through his career. The issues he’s had with prior teammates could definitely be explained by them being different types of nonhumans who don’t get along. And Jake certainly wouldn’t mind having another nonhuman on the team.

“That could be it,” David says slowly. “I hadn’t thought about it, so I wasn’t looking for any signs that he might be anything other than human. But it’s entirely possible.”

“I guess I’ll talk to him, see if I can sense it on him and ask him. It’d be nice to have better company than you and a whole bunch of humans for once,” Jake says, floating a bubble of water in front of David’s face for a moment before bursting it, soaking his face with water.

“Dick,” David shoots back, elbowing him in the face in retaliation. The water softens the blow for Jake, one of the benefits of his mother being a water spirit, but still. He dives underwater, under where David is floating, and flips him out of the water straight into the air. David shouts in surprise as he goes shooting up before splashing down hard.

He surfaces, sputtering, and Jake dissolves into laughter at his expression.

“It’s gonna be a good season, huh?” 

\---

“You’re like me, aren’t you?” Jake asks eagerly, smiling at Greinke. He’s never really interacted with the pitcher aside from facing off against him, but he can definitely feel something magical about him now that they’re in close contact. It makes his blood sing in a way most magical beings don’t, so it must be something water related.

“Like you?” Greinke frowns. It seems to be his natural state, but Jake’s determined to change that. 

“Magical,” Jake says, opening a palm to let a bubble of water float up before he dissolves it with his elf magic.

Greinke jerks back like Jake had tried to hit him, something flashing across his face before it returns to his usual scowl. “No, I’m not like you. I’m not an abomination.”

“Neither am I,” Jake says easily. He’s used to hearing bullshit like this, and he knows there’s more to Zack than meets the eye.

“You just told me you weren’t human,” Greinke hisses. “You shouldn’t say shit like that.”

“Greinke—” Jake tries, reaching out to him, but Greinke recoils again.

“We never had this conversation,” Greinke says firmly, not bothering to wait for a response before he pivots and stalks out of the room.

Jake just stares after him, taken aback. He’d never expected such a reaction, but he’s still certain there’s something not human about Greinke. Why he’s so adamant about not being magical, Jake doesn’t know, but he’s going to get to the bottom of his enigmatic new teammate.

\---

Jake doesn’t know what to expect from Greinke, especially after their conversation about magic, but he knows he hadn’t expected the embarrassing loss to the Rockies. Still, the team’s in decent spirits, since they’ve got another 161 games to be good.

“No, thank you,” Greinke says, offering Goldy a half-hearted attempt at a smile when the first baseman invites him out after the game. “I don’t really go out after my starts.”

“Another night, then,” Goldy says, not seeming offended. 

“Yeah.” Greinke’s voice and expression are flat, as per usual, but Goldy’s smile doesn’t dim.

Jake turns down the offer as well, citing tiredness. Goldy looks a little concerned but doesn’t argue, just starts to corral the team out the door. Nobody else seems to notice Zack disappear out the back door, towards the inside of the stadium, but Jake slips his phone into his pocket and follows. He’s not powerful enough to turn himself invisible, but he casts a charm to make himself blend into the shadows better as he trails silently after Greinke.

Greinke, instead of heading for the weight room or anywhere Jake had somewhat expected, makes a beeline for the pool, of all places. The grounds crew has cleared out by now, leaving the field deserted, and with the roof closed there’s no chance of anyone but Jake seeing him, but he’s still shocked to see Greinke perch next to the pool and start stripping. 

Jake looks away while Greinke undresses, only looking back when he hears a soft splash. Greinke’s slipped into the pool, and as he sinks slowly to the bottom there’s a strange rippling along his legs. It almost looks like—

Unless Jake just started hallucinating, Greinke just sprouted a tail. A bright purple tail. Which means—he’s a fucking mermaid. What the fuck.

Jake must have made some sort of noise, or maybe Greinke has heightened senses as a mermaid, because he whips around and surfaces, eyes going wide when he sees Jake. All the color drains out of his face and he swims backwards rapidly, purple scales disappearing to legs until he clambers out of the pool, still completely naked.

“You—“ Greinke starts, legs trembling slightly.

“You’re a mermaid,” Jake states flatly, staring at his teammate.

“Merman!” Greinke snaps, cheeks coloring. “Why the fuck did you follow me?”

“I knew you were like me, I wanted to see—”

“I’m not like you! I don’t—don’t flaunt it! Nobody would’ve ever found out if you hadn’t been a nosy shit!”

“I’m just like you,” Jake says stubbornly. “We magical beings gotta stick together, you know?”

“No. No, we absolutely do not. We’re not the same in any way. And you need to get out.”

“Zack—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Zack says harshly. “And don’t think of trying to tell management so they get rid of me, they already know.”

“I would never—” Jake tries, but Greinke’s glare cuts him off. Jake glances at the ground, unable to keep eye contact with that intense blue gaze. “Sorry.”

He can feel Greinke’s gaze boring into him as he turns to go, magic roiling within him.

\---

Jake barely sleeps that night, still fixated on the image of Greinke with his shimmering purple tail. He’s never met another mermaid—merman—before, but he doesn’t know why Zack’s so cagey about it. Sure, there’s a lot of anti-magic sentiment around the country, but Jake’s never had somebody react like that. Nonhumans tend to be pretty open about it amongst each other. Zack had seemed almost—frightened when Jake had seen him, though.

Even if Greinke doesn’t want to bond over both being magical, or even acknowledge what he is, they still have to be teammates, so Jake has to do something to make this right. 

He gets into the park much earlier than usual, heading to the gym so he can hopefully intercept Greinke before he starts his workout. The pitcher has earbuds in and is already running on the treadmill when Jake walks in, and he shows no indication of having noticed Jake’s presence.

“Hey, Greinke,” Jake says loudly, walking over to the treadmill next to him and firing it up. Greinke barely looks at him, but does remove a single earbud. “I wanted to apologize for yesterday.”

“Oh?”

“I shouldn’t have brought it up like that. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“I appreciate your apology.” Greinke’s voice isn’t exactly cold, but there’s not exactly warmth to it, and Jake can’t help but wince. He’s not exactly doing the best job of endearing himself to his new teammate. But maybe that’ll come. There’s still plenty of season to go and to get to know Zack. And if they don’t become the best of friends, it’s fine. Not everybody on a team is super close with everybody else.


	2. Chapter 2

Jake’s never been traded, so of course he doesn’t know how it feels to go back to a team that he used to play for. And he especially doesn’t know how stressful it must feel for a guy like Zack Greinke, who’d been with a guy like Kershaw in LA and then come to Arizona to be their ace. He hasn’t gone looking for comments, but he’s sure there are a lot of unhappy Dodgers fans who take issue with the number of zeroes in Zack’s contract.

Greinke seems more rattled than Jake expected, even taking that into account, though. Jake still doesn’t really have a handle on reading him, but he’s definitely not happy about their first trip to LA of the season.

“Looking forward to seeing Kershaw and your old friends?” Jake hears Goldy ask Greinke across the locker room. Greinke mutters something too quiet for him to catch and practically runs out of the room, leaving behind a frowning Goldy and an intense curiosity in Jake.

\---

Jake’s next plan of attack is to talk to David.

David and Zack don’t seem like close friends, but they’re definitely more friendly than Zack and Jake are at this point, not to mention that David’s the only other nonhuman on the team, so it seems as good a place to start as any.

“So, Greinke,” Jake says to him one day as they’re waiting in the batting cages. It’s loud enough that nobody else should hear their conversation, but public enough that David hopefully won’t think the topic is weird. “You guys are friendly, right? How’s he seem to be settling in?”

“You know, you could just talk to him yourself,” David says with a roll of his eyes. “As for the settling in, I don’t really know. He doesn’t seem to dislike it here but he also seems...I dunno, kinda generally unhappy. Maybe he’d like someone reaching out to him.”

David gives him a pointed look on the last sentence, and Jake nods. He thinks he owes it to Greinke to try at least once more to extend the hand of friendship.

—-

Jake shows up at Greinke’s house the next off day bearing plants. He wasn’t sure what else would be a relatively normal thing to bring and he’s raised these plants himself. If there’s one thing he knows, it’s how to grow things. Especially with the assistance of his elven nature magic.

Greinke opens the door after Jake’s been ringing the doorbell for several minutes, which makes Jake think he’d been hoping whoever was at the door would go away if he waited long enough. But Jake is nothing if not persistent, so he just continues ringing the doorbell until Greinke finally yanks the door open.

“Hi,” Jake says, lifting the plant bed he’s carrying. “I brought a housewarming present.”

Greinke just looks at him for several seconds. “The season started three weeks ago,” he says.

“It’s late April, it’s just starting to warm up,” Jake replies easily.

Greinke snorts and mutters something about it not being cold in Arizona anyways, but steps back to let Jake in. 

“I don’t know how to not kill plants,” Greinke says, leading the way into a light-filled kitchen that looks out on a gorgeous pool. That shouldn’t be surprising, Jake supposes, given who Greinke is.

“Don’t worry, I brought over some easy ones. These guys don’t need much water so they should be fine over road trips,” Jake says, setting them down on the kitchen table. “They do like a lot of sun though, so this seems like a perfect room for them.”

“Yeah?” Greinke doesn’t seem opposed to this, so Jake continues on.

“That windowsill over your sink would be a good spot. Or the counter over there.”

“You’re the expert,” Greinke says with a shrug. “How do I take care of them?”

“Water them about once a week, maybe half a cup,” Jake says. “Oh, and if you have any pets who like to nibble on plants, they should be okay. I mean it’s probably not good for either the pet or the plant but it won’t poison an animal.”

“I uh—I don’t have any pets.” Greinke looks taken aback, but Jake can’t tell what’s setting him off. Hopefully he doesn’t actually hate plants or something.

“Okay, I just wanted to be on the safe side,” Jake says. “You know, if you want one, there’s an animal shelter I volunteer at, and they have a lot of kittens and puppies right now. Springtime’s a good time to adopt.”

“Where is it?” Zack asks, gently running a finger over one of the succulents. Watching him, Jake nearly forgets what he was talking about.

“It’s like half an hour from here, probably? I was actually going to go there this afternoon if you want me to take you there,” he offers. 

“Yeah. That would be—nice,” Greinke says, a little awkwardly. “Do you want, uh, lunch? I don’t have anything interesting but I have sandwich fixings.”

“A sandwich would be great, thanks,” Jake says. He can’t say he’d anticipated Greinke being so friendly as to offer him lunch, but it’s definitely a good step.

Jake keeps things light and directs the conversation to baseball during lunch, figuring that’s safe. It’s the first time he’s seen Greinke—well, not exactly light up, but he seems excited and happy enough, and Jake’ll take it.

\---

If Jake thought Greinke was more excited than usual talking baseball during lunch, seeing him at the animal shelter is like seeing an entirely different man. He makes a beeline for the cats, eyes lit up and his smile more genuine than Jake usually sees it.

Jake gets drawn into conversation with one of the women he frequently volunteers with, and by the time he finds Zack again, the pitcher is sitting in one of the visiting cages, one of the older cats with him.

“Made a new friend?” Jake asks, letting himself in with Zack. The pitcher jumps, tearing his gaze from where the cat is sniffing at his fingers. 

“She seems nice,” Zack says, stroking the cat’s fur. Jake kneels to greet her as well, rubbing gently at her cheeks.

“Wilsy, right? She’s a good one,” he agrees. “An older cat, though, not a kitten.”

“I don’t need a kitten, and she seems more settled than a lot of the kittens here. I think we’d get along well.”

“I think so too,” Jake says, watching Wilsy rub against Zack’s legs and Zack’s expression as he watches her. He wouldn’t have anticipated a cat and a merman getting along like a house on fire, but if it’s what Greinke wants, Jake thinks he’d make an excellent cat dad.

\---

Zack seems to warm up to Jake after he adopts Wilsy. He’ll pick the bike next to Jake when they’re working out together and will offer to spot him as well. It’s not much, and they’re certainly not best friends, but it’s definitely an improvement from the standoffish pitcher who’d first joined the team.

He still won’t go out with the team after starts, instead sticking around in the locker room until everyone else has left before sneaking off to the pool when they’re home and heading immediately back to the hotel on the road. Jake aches to join him, especially when the magic fizzing in his blood boils up and he craves water or a forest to satisfy the warring halves of his body and his magic.

He doesn’t want to intrude on Greinke’s time in the water, though, especially with how sensitive he’d seemed about being a merman. Maybe one day Greinke will be comfortable enough for Jake to join him.

\---

Meanwhile, the team is hovering around .500 and nothing is clicking quite right. They’re lucky to still be in the thick of things with the entire rest of the division scuffling as well, but Jake knows it’s not going to last. Sure, none of the teams in their division are the Cubs this year, but the Dodgers and Giants are too stacked to continue with their mediocre records for long. 

Greinke ends the month with only two wins, and he’s certainly not repeating the brilliance he’s had in some previous seasons, but he’s certainly not been bad. And he seems…happier. Jake had never watched Greinke closely in previous seasons, but he’d noticed him enough what with playing Greinke’s old team nineteen times a season. He may not be totally in his element on the mound in Arizona, but he’s totally in his element with the team.

Even if he’s not open with the fact that he’s not human to the rest of the team. Jake wants to talk to him about that, but Greinke hadn’t even wanted to reveal that to Jake, so he’s going to consider the topic off-limits until Greinke brings it up independently.

\---

Jake can tell as soon as he wakes up that it’s going to be a bad day. There’s an all too familiar itch beneath his skin that signifies his magic fighting against itself, but it’s a game day, so he hauls himself out of bed and tries not to trip over his own feet.

In the locker room, Goldy takes one look at him and winces. 

“Rough day?” he asks, leaning against Jake’s locker as Jake very slowly lowers himself to sit. Jake nods tightly, not really trusting himself to speak without revealing the pain he’s in to Goldy.

“I can play,” Jake says when he gets his breath back. He’ll be damned if he lets his stupid warring heritage get in the way of baseball. He has a job to do, dammit.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, okay?” Goldy says gently, sympathy written across his face. 

“Thanks, man.” Jake appreciates the offer, really he does, but he wishes there was actually something anyone could do. He doesn’t resent his parents per se but there are days he regrets being born, regrets that his parents ignored their families’ protests about their relationship. 

“Guess that magic blood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, huh?” 

“Not all the time, no,” Jake agrees. He spots Greinke across the room, staring at them not so subtly. “I’ll be fine, though. No need to worry about me.”

Goldy pretty obviously isn’t fooled by the cheer Jake tries to inject into his voice, but he seems to sense that Jake’s done talking about it. He just pats Jake lightly on the shoulder and retreats back to his own locker, and Jake hauls himself to his feet. Time for the arduous task of getting changed into his uniform.

He’s barely collapsed into the seat in front of his locker again, breathing heavily, when Zack grabs his arm and pulls him back to his feet and hauls Jake out into the hall.

“What the hell happened to you?” he demands. 

“I’m fine. This is normal, it’s okay,” Jake assures him. “It’s just my magic being dumb. It’ll probably be better tomorrow. I have to go get ready for the game now.”

“No, but, Goldy—” Zack shakes his head. “He knows about you being nonhuman? Does the whole team?”

“Yeah, of course. I trust them and the organization’s always had my back about it, so why keep it a secret?”

Zack shakes his head again, seemingly in denial this time. “You told them?”

“I mean, I just kinda let it out naturally. My magic doesn’t like the two halves it’s in and so it acts up sometimes like it is today. Look, we can talk about this more later, but I really need to get ready now.”

Zack frowns but doesn’t protest, silently stepping out of his way so Jake can return to the locker room. There’s a look in his eyes that Jake isn’t sure he likes, except Jake needs to go throw up because of the magic roiling inside him first. 

\---

After the game, Zack drags him out to the pool, which will officially make it the first time they’ve been there together since Jake had discovered Zack’s secret. Jake knows Zack still goes here after all his starts, but he still tries too hard to keep his magical self suppressed for Jake’s liking. 

“What are we doing here, Zack?” Jake asks, tugging a hand through his hair. All he wants to do is go home and sleep.

“I talked to David and he explained more of how…what this is.” Zack tugs off his own shirt and gestures for Jake to do the same. “I figured, if it’s your magic warring against itself, it might help to lean into one side of it and try to let that wash over you. So we’re going to sit in the pool and your water magic can come to the surface and maybe it’ll make you feel better.”

“Fine,” Jake says, stripping efficiently. He doubts this’ll help, but it’s probably better to indulge Zack when he’s in a mood like this. And when Jake’s as tired and achy as he is after today’s game.

Zack dives into the water neatly, the change rippling over him instantly. Though he’s seen it already, Jake doesn’t think he’s ever going to tire of watching shiny purple scales cover Zack’s legs as they shift into a tail, and one powerful flick of it propels him all the way across the pool. He surfaces a moment later, brushing wet hair out of his eyes with a grin.

“Well? You coming in?”

Jake rolls his eyes and steps more cautiously into the pool, shuddering at the unnatural feeling of chlorine on his skin. Management uses as little chlorine as possible for his and Zack’s sakes, but it still doesn’t feel right, and he doesn’t think this is going to help him at all. Zack’s stopped swimming and is floating in place near the bottom of the pool, so Jake reluctantly goes over to him.

“I still don’t see the point of this.”

“Show me your water magic?” Zack asks. “I haven’t seen it since the first time, and I’m curious how it differs from mine.”

Jake sighs, rolls his shoulders, and reaches inside himself for the water magic. It comes more easily than he’d anticipated. Normally it requires a lot more coaxing on days like this, but it slides to the surface with little effort, so Jake sends a wave straight at Zack’s face.

Zack actually laughs, and sends a wall of water back, sending Jake tumbling halfway across the pool. He reorients himself and retaliates with an orb of water that shoots into Zack’s ear, then swims sideways to avoid Zack’s response.

Zack finally ends the water battle when he leaps out of the water like a dolphin, tail flashing in the dim light of the park above them, and Jake realizes that the crawling sensation within his magic has abated. The elf magic has retreated beneath his water magic, and for once he feels like he belongs in his body.

“Alright?” Zack asks, swimming over to him.

Jake shakes himself out of his thoughts and grins. “Better, actually. Thank you.”

“Glad to hear it,” Zack says, nodding like he’s satisfied. “So you’ll tell me from now on when this happens.”

“Wait, I didn’t—” Jake tries to protest, but Zack just frowns at him and Jake relents. “What are you gonna do when we’re not at home?”

“Figure something out,” Zack says simply. He swims over to the edge of the pool, hauling himself out and flicking his tail idly as it slowly turns back into legs.

“I won, by the way,” Jake says after he’s clambered out far less gracefully. “Water sprite powers beat mermaid ones, any day.”

“Merman,” Zack corrects with a scowl that Jake is pretty sure by now is theatrical. “And no, you didn’t win, I just got bored. I could crush you if I wanted to.”

“Sore loser,” Jake shrugs, flicking a ball of water at Zack’s face.

“Face off against me in the ocean at some point and we’ll see.”

“We don’t have an ocean, and as far as I’m concerned, this pool is the best place to test our powers. I’m sure it sucks to be less powerful than me.” Jake gives a jaunty wave and turns to flee before Zack regains full use of his legs and can chase after him.


	3. Chapter 3

“Come with me,” Jake says, reaching out a hand to Zack. His teammate looks at him skeptically, but lets Jake pull him to his feet.

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise,” Jake says, bouncing on his heels slightly. Zack just rolls his eyes and follows Jake out of the hotel and to the waiting taxi. Zack’s quiet through the car ride, just taking in the sight of San Francisco around them, but he doesn’t seem annoyed. God, Jake really hopes he likes this.

“You brought me to the beach,” Zack says dryly once the cab has dropped them off. “Except we can’t get to it.”

“We just have to climb down,” Jake says, gesturing at a barely visible path down the bluff. “It’ll be worth it. Nobody else swims down here because it’s so hard to get to.”

The skepticism fades off of Zack’s face, replaced by a look Jake can’t quite decipher. “Swimming?” he asks.

“Yeah. I—I thought—” Jake falters. Maybe he should’ve asked Zack first, instead of just assuming he’d want to take advantage of an off day in San Francisco.

“Lead the way,” Zack says, and Jake brightens again. Zack’s never subtle when he thinks an idea is stupid, so he must not hate it. Maybe Jake’s done something right.

The beach is even more secluded than Jake had realized when he’d first seen it, so he has no hesitation in stripping off his shirt when they get down to the beach. Zack’s already in the water when Jake turns back to the ocean, Zack’s head disappearing under the water. He wades in more slowly, relishing the feeling of the water making the magic in his blood sing. 

By the time he gets deep enough to dive underwater, Zack’s circled back around to join him. He looks more relaxed than Jake’s ever seen, hair floating through the water around the peaceful expression on his face.

“Thank you,” Zack says. His words sound a little odd underwater, but he seems to have no issues talking.

“You’ve got a little more room to swim around here, huh?” Jake asks with a smile. Happiness looks good on Zack, with his smile and the way his eyes are lit up.

“And there’s nothing like swimming in the ocean,” Zack says, smile brightening somehow. “Want to race?”

“That’s not fair, I don’t have a tail,” Jake protests, but he calls on his magic and shoots himself forward, drawing on the water around him to propel him. He hears a protest and an accusation of cheating, then feels Zack moving quickly to catch up with him. 

Unsurprisingly, the merman overtakes him nearly immediately, Jake’s water powers no match for the combination of Zack’s powers and his powerful tail. Instead, Jake can just watch the movement of Zack’s tail from behind as he goes speeding through the water. This shallow, the sun reaches through the water just enough to reflect off of Zack’s scales, making the purple shimmer. 

Zack surfaces eventually, and Jake swims more slowly over to him. 

“Awfully slow, aren’t you?” he asks, grinning and shaking water from his hair. 

Zack looks so unlike how Jake normally sees him, and a million miles from the scared, untrusting merman who’d first come to the DBacks, and Jake’s hit with the sudden desire to kiss him. Which, fuck. He can’t be falling for a teammate and especially not for Zack. The last thing he needs is to be falling for someone who’s barely started to trust him.

“Not my fault I don’t have a tail,” Jake shoots back, ducking underwater to hopefully cool his flushed cheeks so Zack doesn’t notice it. “And this isn’t my natural habitat.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.” Zack laughs and flicks his tail, sending a huge wave of water at Jake. When Jake emerges, sputtering, Zack’s still smiling.

Jake sends a bubble back at Zack’s face with as much speed as he can muster, but Zack easily swims out of the way, diving back underwater with barely a splash. When he doesn’t resurface after a moment, Jake goes after him, following the telltale purple through the water. Zack must be letting him follow, because he’s going nowhere near as fast as he did earlier.

Zack starts swimming back towards the surface, so Jake shoots up to get there before him. A moment later, Zack leaps out of the water, tail flashing in the sun as he twists in midair. His descent back into the water is just as graceful, and Jake startles when something brushes against his legs.

Zack surfaces again, laughing. “Jealous?” he teases, thumping Jake’s legs with his tail. Jake goes flying backwards with the force of it, tumbling through the water until Zack grabs onto his arm and pulls him back up.

“Jeez, warn a guy, would you?” Jake asks when he gets his breath back. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to hit you that hard,” Zack says. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jake assures him. “That was really cool!”

“What, the jumping? That’s nothing. I could put every show at an aquarium to shame if I wanted to,” Zack says. 

“How often do you get to?” 

“Never, really. Pools aren’t big enough for it and I really don’t go in the ocean anymore,” Zack says. 

“Why not? You’re rich, you could easily spend time in a secluded part of the ocean.”

Zack dives underwater for a moment, and when he surfaces, he still looks a little uncomfortable.

“I dunno. I usually tried to spend as little time as possible in merman form.”

Jake tries to keep the wince off his face, balling his hands into fists under the water. Fuck whoever made Zack feel like he had to be ashamed of who he is. And fuck the rest of the world, too, for making them think that was okay.

“Well, why don’t you show off now?” Jake prompts, thrusting his hands up and sending a bubble shooting into the air with it. When Zack still hesitates, Jake reaches out to nudge him with a bubble. “What’s wrong?”

“If someone sees me…” Zack says, swimming in place. He looks like he wants to, and Jake smiles knowing that he can give Zack just that.

“There’s a merman who plays for San Jose’s hockey team, he’s the one who told me about this place. He said he’s been swimming here for years and it’s a safe place. Humans never come here. The guy I talked to thought there might be something magical about the area, but he was adamant that it was safe.”

“You’re sure?” Zack asks, and Jake nods. That seems to be enough for Zack, as he dives underwater again immediately before surfacing in a leap even higher than before. Treading water, Jake watches with a smile as Zack moves through the water like he’s never left it.

\---

Once Zack has had his fill of showing off, they swim in to the beach, where Jake stretches out in the sunlight to dry off. Zack hasn’t turned back yet, and his tail still shimmers faintly in the light.

“Hey,” Zack says quietly, and Jake tears his gaze from the water in front of him to look at his teammate. “Thank you. This meant a lot.”

“I’m glad I could make you happy,” is what comes out of Jake’s mouth, and he cringes a little, hoping Zack won’t read too much into it. He doesn’t seem to, thankfully, just gives Jake a soft smile and looks back at the water. He doesn’t seem particularly inclined to leave, and Jake finds that he isn’t either. He’s content to sit here, watching the sun slowly sink lower in the sky and feeling Zack’s happiness beside him.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey, you seen Zack?” Torey asks the room at large three days later, back in Arizona. Jake frowns and looks over at the pitcher’s empty locker, then pulls out his phone to check if he’d gotten a message from him. There’s nothing, and something in Jake’s gut doesn’t feel right.

“I’ll call him,” Goldy offers, already lifting his phone to his ear as he steps out of the locker room. The rest of the team starts filing out towards the field for warmups, but Jake lingers. Zack’s not starting today, but he’s never this late. Something has to be wrong.

Goldy ducks back into the room too quickly, frowning. “No answer.”

“Well, I’ll take care of it. The two of you get out there, worry about the game.”

Jake opens his mouth to protest, but Goldy puts a hand on his back and starts to steer him outside.

“Something’s gotta be wrong,” Jake insists even as he starts down the tunnel.

“Yeah, but it’s not your job to figure it out. I’m sure he’s fine, maybe he just fell asleep.”

“Sure,” Jake mutters, unconvinced. It’s not like he can do much of anything about it now, though, so he just tugs his cap a little further down and takes a deep breath. Game time. Zack would get mad at him for being distracted during a game, so he needs to just put his head down and play baseball.

\---

Zack hasn’t appeared in the dugout by the end of the game, and his locker is still empty when the team traipses back inside following yet another loss. Nobody seems to want to go out tonight, which means Jake doesn’t need to make an excuse when he rushes through his shower and heads out immediately. Nobody comments, and Goldy just gives him a knowing look as he makes a beeline for the door.

“Hey, Zack!” Jake yells, hammering on his teammate’s door. “Open up!”

There’s no response, so Jake ignores the small part of him that says it isn’t moral before he casts a charm to open the door. Wilsy leaps at him immediately, meowing at the top of her lungs until Jake bends down to let her sniff his hand. 

“Hey, girl,” Jake says quietly, bending down to look properly at her. She doesn’t seem hurt but she’s definitely agitated, not angling for affection like she usually does when Jake visits. “Where’s your person, huh?”

Wilsy doesn’t respond, of course, just meows insistently and paws at Jake’s foot. She seems to want him to stop standing there, so he moves through the downstairs quickly, calling for Zack and still getting no response. Wilsy trails after him the whole way, still meowing. The pool seems like the next likely location for Zack, so Jake heads out there next. He has to stop Wilsy from following him outside, and she sits right up against the sliding door and continues to meow when Jake goes out.

The pool looks as calm and serene as always, but the area around it is in complete disarray. The furniture is knocked everywhere, and one of the lounge chairs is crushed, like somebody had been thrown on top of it. 

“Zack!” Jake calls again, not anticipating a response. He does, however, spot Zack’s phone under the shattered table, which he scoops up quickly.

He casts a quick charm over the area to check for any other living beings and finds only Wilsy, so turns back inside. He’s already dialing David as he walks, going through every room in the house this time just in case.

“Yeah?” David answers.

“I think Zack’s been kidnapped,” Jake says. He has to lean down and focus on Wilsy’s soft fur beneath his hand as he swallows hard to keep from choking on the words. It seems like the only possible option, but he really doesn’t want it to be. He wants it to be that Zack had just gotten mad about the team doing poorly and threw his furniture around. He wants it to be anything but Zack being in danger.

But he knows Zack, and he knows that Zack would never leave Wilsy alone for too long or miss being at the park for a game. There’s no good possible explanation for this.

“You think what now?” David sounds incredulous. “Where are you?”

“I’m at his house. Where are you?”

“Haven’t left the park yet,” David says, and now that Jake focuses on it, he can hear the background noises of the locker room.

“Okay, stay there, I’ll be right back,” Jake says. He hangs up the phone with David and stares at the kitchen around him. Nothing in here is disturbed and it looks too peaceful for a kidnapping to have taken place just outside. The only thing out of place in here is Zack’s absence, his phone still clutched in Jake’s hand, and Wilsy’s distress.

God, things had been so good lately. Zack had seemed so much happier recently, and ever since they’d gone swimming in San Francisco, he’d seemed to really trust Jake. And now Jake’d let him get kidnapped. 

“I’ll come back later and take care of you, I promise,” Jake says to Wilsy, heart clenching at her plaintive little meow when he heads for the door. “And I’ll bring Zack home.”


	5. Chapter 5

David’s the only one left in the locker room when Jake gets back there, and he looks almost as worried as Jake feels. He pops to his feet as soon as Jake walks in, crossing the room quickly.

“What’s going on? Why do you think Zack’s been kidnapped?”

“Not here,” Jake says. There’s nobody else around, but he can’t take any chances. Zack wouldn’t want this public, not if it could be avoided, and he intends to do everything as if Zack’s going to be back tomorrow. Because he will be. Because Jake’s going to find him. He leads David to one of the video rooms, closing the door behind them. “He’s not at home and his phone was lying outside there. And all the furniture outside was knocked over and broken.”

“Shit,” David says, shaking his head. “Do you know who did it?”

Jake scrubs a hand over his face, grimacing. “No.”

The only thing he can think of is the Dodgers, but they wouldn’t go to the extremes of kidnapping him, would they? God, who would want to take him? Nobody outside of the Dodgers and the D-backs even know that he’s a merman. Unless someone took him to get a ransom, since Zack makes a lot of money?

“Is there anything on his phone?” David asks, and Jake wants to kick himself. He’s been clutching the phone like a lifeline since he found it on the ground, but he hadn’t thought to see if there was any information on it.

“There’s a voicemail from Kershaw,” Jake says, lifting the phone to his ear to listen to it.

“Hey, Zack,” Kershaw’s voice says on the recording. “Call me as soon as you get this, okay? AJ and I…we just found out that the Dodgers leaked your identity to a group of hunters. I don’t know why, but just… Be careful, okay? And call me.”

The recording ends there, and Jake slowly lowers the phone, staring down at it. Too little, too late.

“Anything helpful?” David asks, prompting Jake to snap out of it.

“Yeah, one sec. I gotta—gotta call him back.”

He’s already dialing when David nods, and Kershaw answers on the first ring. 

“Zack!”

“This is Jake Lamb, actually,” Jake says. “I think Zack’s been kidnapped.”

“He’s been fucking kidnapped? When? Where is he?”

“If I knew where he was I’d be going to get him right now,” Jake says. “You said you found out that the Dodgers leaked his identity to a group of hunters. Who? Where are the hunters?”

“I—I don’t know exactly,” Kershaw says. He sounds as rattled as Jake feels, but pulls himself together well enough with a deep breath. “I know they’re called the Protectorate and that they have chapters all around the country. You’ll see them at games sometimes where teams have openly nonhuman players, they bring signs to protest it and shit. I’m pretty sure they’re not one of the groups that wants to kill nonhumans at least, just get them out of human society.”

“Oh, that’s so much better,” Jake mutters sarcastically, but the band of anxiety around his chest loosens ever so slightly. “Thanks, man. Hopefully that’ll help us find him as soon as possible. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Please find him. And please let me know if there’s any other help I can provide. I don’t—I can’t believe the Dodgers would actually do this.”

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t worry about that now,” Jake says, trying to keep his worry from turning his tone harsh. “Once Zack’s safe, we can help you figure out what to do about your organization, but now I need to focus on getting him back.”

Kershaw takes another deep breath. “Of course, of course. Just keep me updated.”

Jake assures him that he will and hangs up, setting the phone down as gently as possible on the table next to him. He relates the information from Kershaw to David, who blows out a long breath.

“Protectorate, huh? Some fucking protectors, kidnapping people right from their homes.”

“But we’re not people, remember. We’re just subhuman garbage,” Jake says, unable to keep the bitterness from seeping into his voice. “Either way, we need to figure out where they are, where they’ll be keeping Zack. Even if they don’t kill him I don’t want to think about what they do to get nonhumans to want to move out of human society.”

Before David can respond, the door slams open and Goldy walks in, fury written on his usually genial features.

“Hold up, did you just say that someone’s trying to kill Zack?” he demands, and his fist clenches around open air in apparent rage.

Jake exchanges a quick nod with David, who nods. Even if Goldy’s a human, Jake trusts him more than just about anyone. “No, but someone’s kidnapped him.”

Goldy visibly tenses, muscles tightening in anger. “Who? And when? And where are they?”

“Don’t worry about it,” David says, even though a blind man would be able to read the worry on his face. “They’re anti-nonhuman hunters, so it’s really probably best if Jake and I handle them alone.

This time, Goldy does more than just clench his fist. There’s a rippling in the air above his hand and suddenly he’s holding a giant sword in one hand. He turns a flat smile on the both of them and lets the sword drop to his side.

“It’s a job for the magic types, huh?” he asks. Jake can’t tear his gaze away from the runed blade that had appeared from absolutely nowhere, but David seems to have no such shock.

“Are you a warlock of some sort? How did we not know?” he asks eagerly, leaning forwards in his chair to peer at the sword.

“No, I’m not…” Goldy glances down at the blade and it disappears again with another shimmer in the air. “Technically, I am human. I’m just…the reincarnation of King Arthur.”

“You’re the what now?” David repeats incredulously.

“I know, it’s weird. But do you want my help in finding Zack or not?” 

“We absolutely do,” Jake cuts in, making a concerted effort to snap out of his surprise. So Goldy’s actually a legendary king and hero. Somebody has to be, he supposes, and it makes as much sense for it to be Goldy as anybody. He’s certainly got the inspiring confidence and leadership qualities that Jake would want out of a king. “I don’t suppose that nice sword of yours has any magical capabilities? Such as tracking magic?”

“Unfortunately not.” Goldy looks genuinely upset that he can’t help with that, and he hesitantly takes a seat like he thinks Jake’s gonna tell him he can’t sit down. “Who took him?”

Jake explains it for the second time, and when he’s done, Goldy leans back in his chair, deep in thought. 

“The Protectorate, huh. I haven’t heard of them personally but I might know a guy who knows about them, or at least how to find them. I’ll reach out to him right away and see what he can find.”

“Okay,” Jake says, grasping onto that like a lifeline. Hopefully Goldy’s guy can really help, because Jake doesn’t actually know how to find someone who’s been kidnapped. He’s a baseball player, not a detective.

“Want me to tell management and the rest of the team?” Goldy offers.

Jake shakes his head quickly. “I don’t think we should tell the rest of the team. Zack hasn’t told any of them he’s a merman for a reason and I don’t want to betray his trust.”

Goldy just looks at him for a moment, and Jake realizes his mistake. Fuck. He trusts Goldy, and Zack probably would too, but he wasn’t going to reveal Zack’s identity. Fuck.

“I assume management knows, though?” Goldy asks. When Jake nods, Goldy stands again. “I’ll let them know what happened so they can know that he’s not just blowing things off and perhaps they’ll even be able to offer some assistance. I’ll let you know whatever I find out, will you two do the same?”

“Yeah,” Jake agrees, suddenly eager to get out of the park. Wilsy needs to be fed, and maybe Jake can find something else at Zack’s house. He supposes there’s always the possibility that Zack gets himself free and makes his way home, and in that case Jake should be there. Although Zack would probably prefer it if Jake didn’t eat all of his food and make himself completely at home in his house.

Jake drives home for dinner and packs a few days’ worth of clothes and essentials into a duffel, trying to ignore the pit of anxiety in his stomach. Zack will be okay, he’s stronger than he looks. He has to be okay.

Wilsy greets Jake excitedly when he charms the door open again, rubbing against his ankles and meowing plaintively. 

“Hey, beautiful,” Jake murmurs, swallowing around the lump in his throat as he bends down to scratch behind her ears. “Sorry, Zack’s not here. But he will be. Soon, I promise.”

Wilsy meows, and Jake feels his cheeks flush at talking to a cat. She doesn’t understand him, of course. She doesn’t know what’s happened to Zack and she’ll never understand why if Zack never comes home. 

Which just means that Jake needs to make sure Zack comes home.

Jake heads into the kitchen, poking through drawers until he finds the cat food. There’s an insistent meow from next to him, and Wilsy trots over to where the food and water bowls are set up, looking expectantly up at Jake.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m working on it,” Jake mutters to her, scooping out some food into her bowl and returning the food to the drawer where he’d found it. With Wilsy fed and the house locked up, Jake grabs a blanket out of his bag and flops down on the couch, stretching out and staring up at the ceiling. 

He’s exhausted, this late in the season, and especially with the stress of finding out that Zack had been kidnapped. He should sleep. He definitely needs to be clearheaded if they’re going to try to find Zack and rescue him. 

And yet he can’t seem to turn his brain off. Can’t seem to stop thinking about what the fucking Protectorate must be doing to Zack right now. He just doesn’t understand why humans are so full of hatred towards anything different than them. Not that elves or water spirits or other races are necessarily better, but they haven’t dedicated as much time and effort to oppressing anyone different like humans have. Being human isn’t the only qualification for being a person, but telling that to a human like the ones in the Protectorate is about as useful as trying to take batting practice against a brick wall.

How would the Protectorate convince nonhumans to leave human society, anyways? The only things Jake’s coming up with are…not things he wants to picture happening to Zack. But there are laws against that. Nonhumans are under different legal status than humans, but they still have the same rights as humans in principle, if not in practice. And even though nonhumans are certainly discriminated against in the workplace, literally torturing them is at least looked unfavorably on by humans these days.

Jake sighs and rolls over, burying his face in the cushion and starting to count his breathing. He needs to sleep. Spiraling like this will do absolutely nothing to help anyone. 

There’s a quiet chirp next to him, then the couch dips as Wilsy jumps up. She paws at his shoulder once, then jumps onto the back of the couch above Jake’s head. Without lifting his head from the couch, he lifts a hand up towards Wilsy, smiling faintly when he feels whiskers brush against his fingers.

He reaches a little farther, gently rubbing her back until she starts purring. He sighs again, remembering clearly how happy Zack had been the day he’d adopted Wilsy. “We’ll get him back. We will.”


	6. Chapter 6

Jake wakes to a tail flicking across his face the next morning. He flails in surprise at the unexpected sensation and finds himself falling on the ground, a disgruntled meow coming from above him.

Shit. Wilsy. He’d forgotten that he’d fallen asleep on Zack’s couch. 

Jake scrambles to his feet, idly patting Wilsy on the back as he searches for his cell phone. He finds Zack’s first, half dead, and the only new message is a text from Kershaw. There’s a split second of hope that Kersh has some new information that can help them find Zack, but it’s just him asking if they’ve found Zack yet.

Wilsy leaps down from the couch then, jumping onto his backpack and knocking Jake’s phone free from where it had been on top of his bag. Ignoring her plaintive meows, Jake scoops up the phone and scrolls through the few messages, heart sinking again when there’s nothing from Goldy.

He’s not exactly sure of what the protocol is supposed to be when trying to find a kidnapped teammate in the middle of the baseball season, but it probably makes sense to go back to Chase and meet up with David and Goldy. Can’t hurt, at least.

Wilsy meows the entire time as Jake feeds her and gathers up what he needs for the game. Loath as he is to leave Wilsy and Zack’s house, Goldy might have some information and Jake needs to be doing something other than sitting around. 

\---

“Hey, did you—” Jake asks the moment he finds Goldy in the locker room. Goldy cuts him off with a quick shake of his head, and Jake wonders if there’s any connection between his heritage as a king and how quick people seem to be to do what he wants.

Goldy drags him out into the hallway, nodding across the room at David, who drops his phone into his locker and follows them to the empty spare video room. 

“Okay, I don’t have a location yet, but my friend said he should have it for me in a matter of hours at most. I’m more concerned at the moment with what we’re going to do once we figure out where they are.”

“Get Zack out, of course,” Jake says. Why does this even necessitate a conversation?

“Ky—my friend said that the Protectorate aren’t going to let him go so easily. And once we get him back, they might go after him again.”

“So we kill them, and they can’t touch Zack ever again.” Jake shrugs, ignoring the way his stomach flips uncomfortably at the thought of murdering people. There’s more than enough humans in the world, it shouldn’t be an issue to get rid of a few terrible ones.

“We can’t kill them!” Goldy reels back in surprise, horror flashing across his features. “They might be awful, but if we murder them, we’ll be worse than they are.”

“Hold on, if we resort to violence to get our kidnapped friend back, we’ll be worse than the ones who kidnapped him in the first place? That doesn’t hold up,” David says. 

“Alright, so we just injure them a little, enough to teach them a lesson and know that Zack’s off-limits. Simple,” Jake puts in. “What does it matter? Once we get Zack back, we’re never gonna let anyone touch him again, especially not a sad bunch of stupid humans.”

“Agreed. I may not have the strongest of magic, but I can throw some curses. I don’t have the power of suggestion as strongly as my whole-blooded fae brethren, but it’s not a useless power even so.”

Goldy laughs quietly. “I should’ve figured that the true magical beings would have some magical way of doing things. I guess I’ll just come for moral support.”

“And the intimidation factor,” Jake says, eyeing Goldy’s biceps straining against the sleeves of his t-shirt. Add in the gigantic sword and Jake’s pretty sure he’ll do a great job of scaring off a bunch of stupid humans.

“And that,” Goldy agrees with a faint smile. “I’ll let you guys know as soon as my friend contacts me again. Oh, and none of us are in the lineup for today. It might be easier to stick around here, though, so we can leave from here when we find a location. Unless you guys need to pick up, like, magic stuff?”

David taps the chain around his neck. “No, I’m all good. And I packed some water and other essentials in my backpack.”

“Unless one of you wants to carry around a tree, then no. I’m ready to go whenever.”

Goldy and David both crack smiles at that, although Jake can see the stress still underlying, the way David is fiddling with his chain and how Goldy is clenching his fist like he wants nothing more than to grip the hilt of his sword.

But it’ll be fine. They can take it out on the Protectorate once they find them, and after that Jake can focus on helping Zack. It’ll work.

“I’ll be in the pool if you need me. I’m gonna go burn off some energy,” Jake says, striding to the door before Goldy or David can say anything. He really maybe shouldn’t be tapping into his water spirit side because he’s doubtless going to need his elf magic more if they’re going to be fighting. 

“Is that…a good idea?” Goldy asks, stopping Jake just as he’s about to step back into the hallway. “You don’t want to tire yourself out before we’re going on a rescue mission.”

“Water spirit, remember? I won’t tire myself out. I’ll only give myself more energy.”

“Yeah, and also push back your elven magic. C’mon, man, I know you,” David says. “Don’t worry about Zack, we’ll find him. I know Zack’s a merman but it’s not like going for a swim is going to get him back any faster.”

“I know—” Jake starts, but he’s cut off by Goldy’s phone ringing.

“Is that—” David asks. Goldy nods sharply and lifts the phone to his ear.

“Hey, man. Please tell me you have good news.” Whoever it is must respond in the affirmative, because Goldy’s face lights up. “Thank you so much. Just add this to the growing list of things I owe you my life for.”

Jake raises an eyebrow at David, wondering what Goldy could be talking about. Just who is this friend that Goldy apparently owes him so much? David just shrugs as Goldy chuckles.

“Yeah, well, we can continue this later. What’s another few days or weeks to you, huh? I’ll let you know when we’re back safely.”

Goldy listens for another few moments before hanging up, shoving the phone into his pocket and gesturing towards the door.

“I’ve got an address. Ready to go get our friendly neighborhood merman back?”


	7. Chapter 7

Goldy pulls the car into a spot outside a slightly rundown looking office building. There’s no sign that it’s harboring anything untoward inside, such as a secret hideaway for bigoted assholes who want to push people out of their lives and homes for having the gall of being a different type of person.

“You’re sure this is the place?” David says, seeming to echo Jake’s thoughts. 

“Absolutely.” Goldy turns the engine off and climbs out of the car, leaving David and Jake no choice but to follow. He’s already tugging at the door handle when they catch up, and Jake has to catch his arm before he summons his sword when the door doesn’t open immediately. Ignoring Goldy’s raised eyebrow, Jake presses a hand to the handle and closes his eyes, concentrating on the lock. For a group of humans obsessed with getting rid of nonhumans, they don’t seem to be prepared at all for nonhumans fighting back. It’s almost laughably easy to get the lock open, so easy that Jake feels virtually no drain on his magic.

“I’ll lead,” Goldy says, stepping inside and summoning Excalibur to his hand the moment Jake closes the door behind them. And Jake has magic but if he didn’t know Goldy was on their side, he’d be pretty damn terrified. Hopefully the Protectorate members will be scared shitless.

David follows right behind Goldy, fingering his chain in anticipation. Mindful of how much magic he may need to spend when they run into people or find Zack, Jake casts a quick charm to check how many people are in the building. 

“There’s five people in the room in front of us, two in one room on the third floor, and one alone in the room next to those two,” Jake reports in a whisper. Goldy nods in acknowledgement, David grips his chain in his fist and his hand glows slightly, and then Excalibur cleaves through the door handle like it’s made of butter and there are shouts of alarm from within.

“Hello there,” Goldy says, striding through the broken door with his sword held high. David and Jake flank him as the men in front of him rise from the table they’d been scattered around. “I think you took a friend of mine, and I’d like him back.”

The man standing at the head of the table crosses his arms, seemingly not intimidated by the giant sword pointing at him. 

“What, your merman?” he sneers, scowling. “Maybe he shouldn’t have decided to pass himself off as a human then.”

“It’s not your job to police that,” Goldy says, and that’s when the apparent leader pulls a gun on them.

Goldy’s sword winks out of existence for a second and he shoves David and Jake behind him before bringing his sword back. But Jake’s pretty sure even Goldy isn’t bulletproof, so he reaches for his magic, except he doesn’t know what charm could help in this situation. Anything he can think to do might cause the gun to fire and he can’t risk his teammates getting hurt. His heart is pounding and he’s incredibly out of his depth. He’s supposed to be a baseball player, he’s not supposed to be in dangerous situations because he can hit a baseball well.

Goldy doesn’t seem cowed by the gun pointed straight at him. He just keeps his sword pointed right back at the Protectorate members.

“What exactly do you plan to do here?” he asks calmly.

“Get rid of you three, get three more abominations out of my society,” the Protectorate leader says. Jake’s not sure what he expects Goldy to do, but what he does not expect is David stepping out from behind Goldy and placing himself in between the gun and them.

“You should let people live their own lives, regardless of what type of person they are,” David puts in, and if Jake didn’t have his own magic, he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to hear the lilt of a powerful faerie suggestion beneath the words. The guy who’d been speaking closes his mouth and takes a step back, arms uncrossing. 

“I should,” he says slowly, a glow flickering across his eyes before fading. 

“And none of you will ever touch Zack or come anywhere near him, ever again,” David says, more forcefully this time. The glow spreads across the eyes of all of the Protectorate members, and Jake stiffens when they all adopt the exact same posture and speak in unison.

“We will never touch Zack or go anywhere near him,” they say, then all sit down once the glow in their eyes fades.

“Let’s go,” David says, hand dropping from his chain and staggering slightly as he turns towards the door. Gesturing with Excalibur, Goldy follows him out, and Jake takes up the rear, shutting the door behind them and leaving a charm locking the door from the inside. He trusts Goldy’s power of suggestion, really he does, but he can’t risk getting interrupted while they’re getting Zack free.

“The others are on the third floor, you said?” Goldy doesn’t actually wait for Jake’s response, just heads for the elevator further down the hall, sword still clenched in his hand. 

“Alright?” Jake asks David quietly as they follow Goldy into the elevator. 

David offers a wan smile, running a finger across his chain. “I’m good. That magic just takes a lot out of me. It doesn’t mix well with human blood.”

“Be careful,” Jake says, cupping David’s elbow and subtly casting a charm to give him a slight energy boost. David’s grateful smile tells him that it didn’t go unnoticed, but the elevator doors open at that moment, and they step out into a hallway, looking straight into a room with the two other men Jake had sensed with his charm earlier.

“Hey, what—” One of them knocks over his chair in his haste to scramble backwards, gaze fixed on Goldy’s sword. The other one glances up from his phone and his eyes go almost comically wide in response.

“You going to give us trouble, or are you going to let us go get our friend and walk out of here?” Goldy asks, and the faint shift in his stance sends both men into a fit.

“Hold on, who are—”

“Put down the sword, we don’t wanna fight—”

“We’re not doing anything wrong, just following orders—”

“I’m not armed, please don’t—"

“Hey!” David yells over their babbling. “Get out. Go. If we see you on our way out with our friend, we will not be this merciful. And never touch any nonhumans in this area again.”

Both humans snap to attention, eyes glowing for a second just like the group downstairs. Their stuff abandoned on the table, they beeline for the elevator. Which means it’s just the three of them and no apparent danger anywhere, and Jake’s a little taken aback at how…easy it’s been so far. Sure, Goldy’s got the scary sword and David’s suggestive fae powers have certainly come in handy, but they’ve faced no real difficulties so far.

“You said the other life form was in the room next to these two?” Goldy asks, gesturing with his sword to the door on the side of the room.

“Yeah,” Jake says, scanning once more. This close, he can tell the person—or merman, hopefully—is slumped on the ground. “But wait, hold on—”

David’s already got his hand on the doorknob when Jake shouts his warning, and Jake can see magic ripple through him.

“You okay?” Goldy asks, Excalibur rippling away into nothingness as he reaches for the faerie. A shudder courses through David’s muscles, but he doesn’t move from where his hand is clenched around the handle.

“There’s something—”

“There’s a curse on the door,” Jake says, magic sweeping over the area. “I can’t touch it, it’ll affect anyone who’s not human. I guess we’re lucky that you’re technically human, Goldy.”

“How do we get rid of it? If Zack’s in there—”

“Give me a minute!” Jake snaps, raising his hands to frame the doorway. The magic is weak, wouldn’t be enough to trap a full-blooded faerie or more powerful magical beings, but without warning, David didn’t have a chance against it. But Jake wasn’t raised as the child of two different types of magic for nothing, and the clumsy magic put in place by a bunch of anti-magic humans isn’t going to stop him. 

Jake closes his eyes, trusting that Goldy will have his back in case anybody shows up, and focuses on the thread of magic tied to the door and handle to keep out any nonhumans. It’s a fairly simple matter to tug at the thread, directing it upwards and towards the ceiling. There’s a faint crackling and David drops his hand from the knob, shaking it vigorously. 

“You okay?” Goldy asks again, putting a hand on David’s arm.

“I’m fine. That was more weird than anything else.”

“Any other traps, Jake?” Goldy asks, pulling out Excalibur again. Jake does a quick scan and shakes his head, gesturing David back towards the door. Normally he’d offer to go first, but this way if there is something else he hasn’t sensed he can get David out of it again.

This time, the knob turns easily, and David pushes the door open.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know how to tag for this, so more explicit warnings for this chapter (slight spoilers):  
> -discussion of Zack's meds  
> -some withdrawal symptoms  
> -discussion of hospitals
> 
> Let me know if I need to warn for anything else please!

The first thing that hits Jake is the smell. The room reeks of vomit and sweat and things Jake doesn’t want to think about, but it doesn’t matter, because the second thing he registers is that Zack’s there.

“Zack!” Jake exclaims, nearly running across the room to where his teammate is slumped against the wall. He opens his eyes slowly, blinking a few times before letting them slip shut again. “Hey, no, Zack, you gotta talk to me.”

Zack rouses himself again when Jake pats his cheek a few times, chains clanking as he shifts. His gaze is terrifyingly unfocused, but he’s alive. He's there and he's breathing and he's at least somewhat responsive.

“Are you hurt?” Goldy asks, dropping to the ground next to Jake. Zack’s gaze slides over him like he and his giant sword aren’t even there and Jake’s heart skips a beat. A moment later, however, Zack’s somewhat focusing on Goldy and shaking his head.

“You guys…” His voice is raspy, barely there, like he hasn’t had water in days. “You guys came for me?”

“Of course we did,” Jake says thickly. He steps forwards to magic the manacles off of Zack’s wrists, but Goldy’s already there, sword slashing down once, twice, before he sheathes it on the belt that Jake doesn’t think he was wearing before.

“What?” Zack stares at him blankly. If Jake wasn’t so concerned, he might laugh, because he’d felt much the same way when Goldy had burst into the room and summoned a giant sword.

“Are you hurt?” Goldy repeats. He’s trying to get Zack up, but Zack just sits there. “Did they hurt you?”

“Water,” Zack rasps. Jake curses, turning to David, who’s already pulling a water bottle out of his backpack. Zack’s hand shakes as he tries to take it, and Jake winces at the blood crusted around his wrists. 

“Here, let me,” Goldy says, wrapping his hand around Zack’s and helping him sip slowly at the water. Zack regains a little color nearly immediately, which Jake figures must be a merman thing.

“How’d you guys find me?” Zack asks when Goldy pulls the water away. Jake settles next to them and rests his fingers against the metal on Zack’s wrists, letting his magic seep into the lock until it snaps open. He repeats the process with the other cuff, and Zack lets his hands drop into his lap once they’re fully free.

“It’s sorta a long story, and we shouldn’t stay here in case they come back early. We’ll explain when we get you out of here. Do you need to get checked out?” Goldy says.

“No, I just need to change,” Zack says, taking another few sips of water. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We got you,” Jake says, taking one of Zack’s arms and letting Goldy take the other. Zack staggers once he’s on his feet, color flooding out of his face immediately. Jake tries to get him to stop for a moment, to adjust to being on his feet for the first time in days, but Zack tries to push forwards and nearly faceplants despite Jake and Goldy’s support. 

“Alright, don’t kill me for this, Zack, but we gotta get out of here.” Goldy waves Jake off and instead shifts so he can lift Zack into his arms. Zack’s hardly a lightweight, but Goldy shows no sign of strain as he looks at Jake. And Jake knows that Goldy has supernatural strength, but damn.

“I don’t need—” Zack protests, but the faintly green tingle to his pale skin speaks otherwise.

“It’ll get you out of here faster,” Goldy says like it’s the only thing that matters. Zack looks like he’s going to argue, but instead just leans his head against Goldy’s shoulder, wraps his arms around Goldy’s neck, and lets his eyes drift shut.

Jake leads the way, magic bubbled up just under his skin with his anger over Zack’s treatment. He almost hopes he has the opportunity to use it, to punish someone for putting his teammate, his friend through hell. 

But they don’t run into anyone else while they’re on their way out, which is probably for the best, considering Goldy’s swordfighting would be significantly hindered by carrying Zack, and Jake's not sure if David could muster up any more suggestive magic.

David gets into the passenger seat without a word, so Jake slides into the back and helps Zack in the car from Goldy’s arms, then takes the water David passes over and helps Zack drink more of it.

“Where to?” Goldy asks, already peeling out of there like he’s trying to stretch a single into a double. “Hospital?”

“My place,” Zack says in between sips. “I need saltwater. I haven’t changed since—Tuesday morning? The morning they—found me. What—what day is it?”

“Zack—” David and Jake start in unison, exchanging a look over Zack’s shoulder. Zack’s gaze is still way too unfocused and he’s pale and looks like he’s going to throw up or pass out any moment.

“I’m not hurt,” Zack insists. Jake would be a little more convinced by it if Zack had any force behind the words, but as is, Jake’s pretty sure he needs a doctor.

“Did you hit your head?” David asks. Jake forces himself not to tense up and keeps gently rubbing Zack’s greasy, matted hair, but he feels his gut twist in worry. Zack’s symptoms do line up with a head injury.

“No.” Zack shakes his head, and Jake’s relieved to see that the movement doesn’t seem to pain him. But Zack’s still way too out of it for just some dehydration to explain it, even though he’s a merman. 

“Oh, fuck,” Goldy curses from the driver’s seat, slowing to a gentle stop. “Zack, you haven’t had your meds since you were kidnapped, have you?”

“No,” Zack mutters, and Jake notices his grip on the water bottle starting to falter. He wraps a hand around Zack’s to keep him from dropping it and helps him take another sip, and in doing so notices how badly Zack’s hand is shaking.

“Okay, hospital then,” David says. 

“No, please,” Zack nearly begs, turning to look at Jake with a pleading look in his eyes. “I—I need to go home. I need to change. Please—”

Zack’s trembling harder now, and his breath is starting to come in harsh gasps. The last thing Zack needs is to have a panic attack, not when they’ve just gotten him back and he’s supposed to be safe.

“Okay, we’ll take you home,” Jake says quickly, squeezing Zack’s hand. “We’ll call the team doctor, okay? But we’re not gonna make you do anything you don’t want to. We’ll take you home and you can change and do whatever you need.”

“Okay,” Zack says, taking a deep, shuddering breath and turning his face into Jake’s shoulder.

“Zack’s place it is,” Goldy says. 

“How’d you find me?” Zack asks, voice muffled in Jake’s shirt. David reaches to the backseat, passing back a protein bar, which Jake takes and opens for Zack.

As Zack nibbles on the protein bar, Jake explains how they’d managed to track him down, and about Goldy’s heritage. Zack just nods, saying nothing. Jake’s worried, but hopefully it’s just Zack adjusting. He’ll be okay. He has to be.

Zack tries to shrug off their help getting out of the car, but Jake has zero intention of letting him do so, ducking under Zack’s arm and holding him up when Zack wavers. Goldy’s there a moment later, helping on the other side.

“’m okay,” Zack mutters, but he’s barely on his feet even with both of them helping, so they ignore his words in favor of getting him into the house.

Wilsy’s there as soon as the door opens, twining between Zack and Jake’s legs as she meows in greeting. Zack looks down at her, and a real smile crosses Zack’s face, and although it’s weak and haunted and not like one of his normal smiles, it’s a start.

“Hang on, I want—” Zack says, and he can’t bend down to pet the cat with both of them holding him up but Jake can tell he wants to.

“Slowly,” Jake warns, lowering Zack with Goldy’s help so the pitcher can sit on the ground. It’ll be difficult to get him back up, Jake’s afraid, but Zack looks like he needs a moment with his cat. “I took care of her while you were…gone. She missed you.”

“I missed her too,” Zack says, letting Wilsy climb into his lap and sniff at everything within reach. She meows softly, pushing her head into his hand. Zack seems to relax for the first time since they’d found him, and Jake is intensely glad he took Zack to the animal shelter.

Eventually, Zack looks up from Wilsy, indecision written plainly on his features. Jake’s almost taken aback by seeing Zack’s emotions so visible, but he figures that being dragged through the hell Zack’s been through would leave anyone struggling to keep their usual defenses up.

“I need—water,” Zack says, clearly reluctant to leave Wilsy.

“She’ll be here,” Jake assures him, helping Zack gently lift the cat off of his lap. Zack’s hands are still shaking and he still looks awful and Jake just wants to fix it. “Goldy?”

“Can I just—” Goldy asks, hesitating in front of Zack. There’s a moment as Zack closes his eyes that Jake thinks Zack is going to refuse, is going to insist on getting there under his own power, but he finally nods. There’s a petulant meow when Goldy lifts Zack off the ground, ever so gently, but despite his care Zack goes green and gags.

Goldy starts apologizing profusely, turning his stricken look on Jake. 

“’m fine,” Zack mutters, visibly restraining himself from throwing up. “Just—go. Please.”

Goldy nods, still looking like he wants to kick himself for the crime of daring to try to help Zack, and Jake can tell he’s doing his best to not jostle Zack. Even so, Zack slumps miserably in his arms and submits to being carried.


	9. Chapter 9

Goldy deposits Zack ever so gently into the tub, as carefully as if he’s taking care of a newborn. 

“You guys can go, I got it from here,” Jake says once Zack’s settled in the jacuzzi. Zack probably won’t want to change with David and Goldy here, and Jake will do whatever he can to make Zack comfortable now.

“I’ll call the doctor and we can make lunch,” Goldy says, nodding at Jake in understanding. “Just yell if you need help.”

Zack’s shaking harder, and Jake doesn’t know what to do. His skin is freezing but maybe that’s a good sign for him?

“Can you—help?” Zack asks shakily, fumbling at the hem of his shirt. Jake tries to ignore the blood crusted on Zack’s wrists as he helps Zack out of the shirt. He’s relieved to see no visible wounds underneath, despite Zack’s insistence that he’s not actually hurt.

“Of course,” Jake says, trying to take as much care as Goldy had in getting Zack undressed. He tries not to look too closely, but thankfully nothing else seems visibly wrong.

Zack closes his eyes in bliss as the jacuzzi starts to fill with water. Some of his color is starting to return, and although he’s still trembling, he looks less like death warmed over.

“Thank you,” Zack breathes before ducking his head under the water. His tail is growing more slowly than Jake’s seen it before, but it’s sprouting and Zack doesn’t look like anything’s wrong. Well. Aside from the obvious.

Jake takes a seat on the edge of the jacuzzi, leaning back against the wall and taking a deep breath, tension finally starting to flood out of his body at seeing Zack home safe and sound. 

“I’d never leave you behind, especially in a hell like that,” Jake says quietly. There’s no response from the water next to him, but he doesn’t need one. He’d seen Zack’s face when they’d walked into that room.

They’re quiet, just sitting in silence, until there’s a knock on the door.

Goldy pokes his head in, a forced smile on his face. “Hey, food’s ready if you are. And I grabbed some comfy clothes for you.”

“Be out shortly,” Zack says, staring down at his tail and closing his eyes at it starts to turn back into legs. Goldy nods at Jake and retreats, leaving Jake to help Zack dry off, change into the sweatpants, and stumble to the kitchen.

Zack sits, reaching for the water and gulping half of it down immediately. “Thanks for making lunch, but I’m not really that hungry.”

“Yeah? How much have you had to eat since they took you?” Goldy asks, a forced lightness in his tone. In lieu of answering, Zack just scowls down at the table and remains silent. “That’s what I figured. This isn’t too heavy, can you just eat a little?”

“Yeah, okay,” Zack agrees, taking the plate Jake passes over. It’s loaded high with pasta and he’d been given what looks like the largest piece of chicken, and Zack visibly blanches at the amount.

“You don’t have to eat it all,” Jake says quickly, before Zack can protest and not eat anything. “Just something?”

Jake’s never going to be sure whether it was his plea or Wilsy’s plaintive meow that convinces Zack, but he’s more relieved that Zack gets convinced to eat than he cares what got him to.

“I already said okay,” Zack mutters, spearing some pasta and chewing slowly, hesitantly. It must sit well, because some of the irritation in his expression fades away and he starts eating less like it’s a chore. Jake hides his smile in his own bite of food, some of the tightness in his chest easing.

“I talked to the team doc, asked him about your meds. He said since it was only a couple of days, you should be okay, but he’ll want to look you over tomorrow,” Goldy says lightly as he dives into his own dinner. “He said to eat a full dinner and take them normally afterwards.”

“Okay, thanks,” Zack mutters in between bites, gaze fixed on the plate like this is the absolute last conversation he wants to have. He looks like he’s starting to near the end of his rope, and Jake resolves to get David and Goldy out quickly so Zack can get some rest.

\---

Zack walks them to the door despite their protests that he should rest, and he looks so much more like himself while stubbornly ignoring advice that Jake has to walk behind him so Zack won’t see his smile. He’s still too pale and too shaky on his feet for Jake’s liking, but it’s better. It’s a step.

“Thank you guys,” Zack says, the same expression he gets whenever he’s trying to convey sincere emotions crossing his face. “I…I really appreciate you coming for me. And for lunch.”

“That’s what teammates are for,” Goldy says, pulling Zack into a tight hug. Zack tenses up at first but relaxes into it after a moment and holds him just as tightly back.

“Yeah, I’m starting to get that sense,” he says when Goldy lets go of him. “But really, thank you.”

David has to hug Zack too, and Goldy ruffles Zack’s hair and makes Zack promise to call him if he ever needs someone to swordfight for him, then it’s finally just Jake and Zack.

“You’re not going, I take it,” Zack says, leaning against the wall behind him. 

“Nope,” Jake says lightly, trying not to look like he’s hovering while he worries about Zack not being able to stand on his own for even that long. Wilsy seems just as concerned, meandering around his legs over and over again but not actually touching Zack.

Zack glances over and offers him a faint smile. “I’m okay. Just tired.”

“Why don’t you go lie down? I’ll clean up from lunch.”

Zack shakes his head, pushing himself upright. “You don’t have to do that. I’m really okay.”

Jake reaches out to stop Zack from going back to the kitchen, wrapping a hand around his forearm. “Please? Let me help you, just for today. I know you’re okay but I’ve been worrying about you for days now.”

Zack visibly deflates, running a hand through his hair and letting Jake see the bruising still faintly encircling his wrist. “Fine. I’m gonna go change again then. I still don’t feel quite right.” He hesitates before leaving the room, looking back at Jake. “Will you come join me when you’re done?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jake says, offering him a quick smile. Despite how weak and un-Zack-like he still seems, at least he’s not retreating into himself and trying to insist he doesn’t need help from anyone.


	10. Chapter 10

“Hey.” Zack’s floating lazily in the jacuzzi when Jake gets in, but he opens his eyes to greet Jake. Wilsy butts her head into Jake’s ankle, sniffing at him for a moment before apparently deciding that Jake’s an acceptable person.

“Hey,” Jake returns softly, already starting to strip. He’s spent enough time swimming with Zack that he doesn’t mind being naked in the water with him, but he still feels a little awkward since Zack’s not really naked.

“How’s your magic? You seem on edge,” Zack says, swimming over so Jake has more room to get in.

Jake stares at him for a moment, barely resisting the urge to laugh. “Yeah, I’m on edge because you got kidnapped. My magic’s fine.”

“Oh. Good.” Zack doesn’t seem to know how to react to that, and ducks under the water while Jake climbs in. 

Jake closes his eyes and relaxes into the cold water, letting his magic seep out and mingle with the salt water all around him. He hadn’t realized he’d depleted himself quite so much in getting Zack out, but the residual ache settling into him is worth it. He’s got Zack here and safe, and he’d deal with a million times worse for that result.

“You’re sure they didn’t hurt you?” Jake asks, dunking his head under the water as well so he can talk to his teammate more clearly. 

Zack actually looks at him this time, something unreadable in his gaze. “Not like how you’re thinking. They mostly wanted to…experiment, I guess.”

“What?” Jake demands, looking Zack up and down like he could see whatever they’d done. 

“No, not like that either,” Zack says hastily. “They wanted to see what would trigger a change. If I could do it not fully submerged in water, how long it would take in fresh water versus salt water, that kind of thing. The only physical damage they did was dehydrate me and then I managed to hurt myself a little trying to get out.”

Jake shudders, the memory of Zack’s prone body chained to the wall indelibly imprinted in his mind. Even though Zack’s wrists are already half healed thanks to the salt water, Jake doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the image of them torn and bruised.

“I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner,” Jake says when he can talk again around the lump in his throat. 

“You found me, that’s enough. You can’t blame yourself for what they did.”

“I know, I know, it’s just…fuck,” Jake says, rubbing his eyes. He hadn’t cried when they’d realized Zack was gone, or when they’d been forced to just wait for Goldy’s friend in trying to track him down, and now he breaks down when Zack is safe and home?

“Hey.” There’s a gentle touch on Jake’s arm, and he looks up to see Zack swimming right in front of him. The tail brushes against his legs, and he manages a laugh through his tears.

“Good thing we both like salt water, right?” he tries to joke, but it comes out flat and half-hearted.

“Did you get hurt when you broke in?” Zack asks, intense gaze raking up and down Jake. 

“No, no. Like I said, I was just really worried. I guess it just hit me all now,” Jake manages a weak smile, then changes the subject. “You want dinner? We should probably try to get you back onto a somewhat normal schedule.”

“Sure.” Zack doesn’t seem thrilled by the thought, but he doesn’t protest, so Jake hops out of the tub and dries off as quickly as possible, flushing and pulling on his pants. He doesn’t want to know if Zack is watching him but he feels beyond awkward like this.

Armed with a chicken sandwich, a glass of water, and the bottle of Zack’s meds, Jake leans against the jacuzzi and passes it over to Zack.

“Thanks, man.” Zack nibbles at the sandwich, tentative at first and then enthusiastically when he seems to decide it’s not going to hurt him. Instead of awkwardly just watching him, Jake turns away and changes back out of his pants, climbing back into the tub as Zack finishes off the water and sets the glass and his meds aside.

“All good?” Jake asks, and he can feel his cheeks flush immediately at how his voice wobbles. Fuck. Zack is fine. He’s two feet away from Jake and in merman form and fine.

“Come here,” Zack says, holding out his arms. Jake gratefully swims closer, burying his face in Zack’s shoulder and clinging to him.

“I’m not gonna let anything happen to you ever again,” he vows, breathing out a spark of magic along with his words. It’s not a true charm and it won’t do anything to protect Zack, but it should make his magic warn him if he’s about to break his promise.

“I know. And this wasn’t your fault. You’ve done so much for me since I got here,” Zack says. He lets go of Jake with one arm to run his fingers through Jake’s hair instead, and Jake can feel the water shifting and roiling around them. And it’s not his water magic causing it, he knows that.

“Is that you?” Jake asks, lifting his head to look at Zack.

Zack’s ears are flushed slightly. “Yeah. Sorry.”

Jake opens his mouth to ask again if Zack’s hurt or hiding something, but Zack gives him a quick smile and cuts him off before he can say anything.

“Don’t ask me if I’m okay. I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Jake asks. Zack pauses just long enough for Jake to start worrying, then takes a deep breath, leans in, and kisses Jake.

Jake nearly pulls away from Zack in surprise, but recovers quickly enough to tighten his arms around Zack before he gets the wrong idea. Zack’s lips are chapped and salty like the water around them, and Jake can feel his magic singing within him even as the water around them writhes like it’s about to erupt with magic.

When Jake finally pulls away to breathe—dammit, why couldn’t he have gills like Zack—Zack is searching his face like Jake’s hiding the secret to only pitching no hitters in it.

“You know,” Jake says, unable to keep the smile off his face, “I’m really glad you signed with this team.”

Zack snorts, finally smiling back. “I just kissed you and that’s all you have to say?”

Jake opens his mouth to give Zack a snappy comeback, realizes he has nothing, and instead kisses Zack again so he can’t keep making fun of him.

“Is that a better response?”

“Much,” Zack says, tail curling half around Jake’s legs. “Do you wanna stay here for the night?”

“I was planning on crashing on your couch whether you wanted me to stay or not,” Jake admits. He sends a bubble at Zack’s face, hoping to temper Zack’s annoyance before it starts, but Zack doesn’t look annoyed in the slightest. In fact, he looks kind of embarrassed.

“I mean, uh, here. Like in the water,” he says. “I don’t really want to change back, and I also…don’t really want to be alone. I could make it warmer if you want. But you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, of course.”

“Dumb mermaid, why would I need warmer water? It’s not like streams are particularly warm. And I’d love to stay.”

“Merman,” Zack corrects automatically, amusement and relief warring in his eyes. “Thank you. For this, and…for everything, really.”

“You don’t need to thank me, dumb mermaid,” Jake says, and kisses Zack again before he can protest.


	11. Chapter 11

Jake’s skin is beyond pruny when he and Zack get out of the water the next morning, but Zack looks a million times better after having taken his meds and gotten two full meals in.

“I need to call Kersh,” Zack says while he recovers use of his legs.

“Yeah?”

“I mean, without him and AJ, you probably wouldn’t have found me,” Zack says, tone matter-of-fact, but Jake still winces while he dries off. 

“We would’ve found you,” he says defensively. Zack glances at him from where he’s drying his hair, a flicker of something crossing his face.

“That’s not what I meant,” he says. “It would’ve taken you longer. It’s nothing against you, I’m glad you looked for me. And I’m glad Kersh gave you guys a heads up so you could find me easier.”

“Me too,” Jake says, wrapping an arm around Zack’s waist and kissing his cheek. “Hey, can I borrow some clothes?”

“I dunno, I think I might like you better like this,” Zack says with a grin. “But yeah, of course.”

Dressed in spare shorts and a t-shirt of Zack’s, Jake busies himself making breakfast to give Zack some semblance of privacy for his phone call without Jake having to be in a separate room. Zack’s got a faint smile on his face when he lifts the phone to his ear, and Jake turns away to start some scrambled eggs.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Zack says as Jake cracks eggs. “Yeah, I’m okay. No worries.”

Jake settles himself into adding veggies, falling into the familiar routine of making breakfast. It’s nice, though, making breakfast for two. Zack’s chatting with Kersh, and he sounds happy enough, so Jake’s happy.

There’s a long pause, a harsh intake of breath from Zack, and Jake whirls around to see what’s the matter. Zack’s faint smile is wiped away in an instant, replaced by fury like Jake’s never seen before.

“They did what?” Zack demands, practically shouting. There’s a pause while Kershaw must be answering, and Zack seems to get even angrier. “Fuck that! Fuck them!”

Jake reaches over to put a hand on Zack’s, letting a little bit of his magic diffuse into Zack into an attempt to calm him. Zack glances up, grimaces at Jake, and scowls at whatever Kershaw is saying.

“They can go fuck themselves. Dammit! They shouldn’t fucking get away with this.”

Whatever Kershaw’s response is must be not what Zack was looking for, because he explodes to his feet and starts pacing through the kitchen.

“No, he doesn’t deserve that. You don’t fucking either. I didn’t deserve any of their shit, too. I wish—" Zack cuts himself off, shaking his head. “You know, I could do something about this. I could tell everyone.”

This time, Zack is close enough and Kershaw is loud enough for Jake to hear the other pitcher yelling “Don’t you fucking dare!”

“Why? They can’t do anything to me now,” Zack says matter-of-factly. Jake, for his part, is still staring up at Zack. Whatever happened must’ve been really bad if Zack is willing to give up his identity to the world in response.

“Fine.” The word is curt, bitten off. “But one more thing...” 

“Yeah. Bye.” Zack hangs up the phone and sits back down, dropping his head into his hands. Putting the two plates down on the table, Jake leans against Zack’s chair, running his fingers through Zack’s hair. “They traded AJ.”

“What?”

Zack lifts his head, turning to look at Jake. “They traded AJ. Because of me. They found out that he and Kersh realized what they’d done, and then they traded AJ. They told Kersh that they couldn’t get rid of him, but nobody else was safe.”

“Jesus fuck,” Jake whispers, horrified. Every time he learns something new about the Dodgers organization he’s more grateful for having been in the Diamondbacks’ organization for his whole career. He’s never had to deal with any shit about his identity, and guys from the Dodgers are being threatened and traded and treated like utter garbage.

“I need to call AJ,” Zack says, snapping Jake out of his daze. The pitcher reaches for his phone, but Jake snatches it away before he can grab it.

“You need to eat first,” he says firmly. He hadn’t been sure the night before, and now he’s positive that there’s a little too much sharpness to Zack’s cheeks. 

“I can do that after, I need to call AJ and apologize.” Zack reaches for the phone, but a quick charm sends it floating away into the living room. 

“For starters, you need to get yourself back into a normal routine if you want to be able to pitch again for your next start.” And oh fuck, they need to go to the ballpark today. Life hasn’t stopped just because things are crazy, unfortunately. “And second, I’m sure Kersh has already told AJ that you’re okay. He’s probably expecting that you’ll need a little time to process. Also, you have nothing to apologize for.”

“Fine.” Zack’s lips thin and he starts digging in to his food, but the terse set of his shoulders tells Jake that his words didn’t exactly get through. But it’s fine. Jake is well acquainted now with being persistent in getting Zack Greinke to stop beating himself up over things that aren’t his fault.

\---

Jake goes home to gather his stuff for the game, and grabs enough clothes and his always-packed road trip bag so he can spend the next few days at Zack’s. He’d had to leave Zack alone while he called Ellis, but Zack had assured him that he’d be okay and that he was good to drive himself to the field. Even so, Jake worries all the way until he gets into the locker room and sees Zack’s stuff in his locker.

“We made him go to the trainer to get checked out, just in case,” Goldy says when Jake pauses for breath. “He seems okay, though.”

“Thanks,” Jake says, dropping his bag and turning right back around.

Zack actually smiles when he looks up and sees Jake walking into the trainer’s office, which Jake thinks is more a sign of the apocalypse occurring than of Zack being okay. But he just smiles back and leans against the wall to watch the trainer examining Zack’s wrists. 

“I don’t think it’ll be an issue at all when you pitch,” Ryan is saying, “but when you throw your bullpen tomorrow I’d like to be there. And if there’s any discomfort at all, you tell me and we’re gonna shut you down for a few days until it heals fully.”

“Okay,” Zack says, and Jake can hear from his tone that there’s absolutely no way he admits to even the slightest twinge tomorrow. 

“Other than that, I think you’re good. If you have any issues, though, you know where I am.”

“Thanks.” Zack nods once and hops down from the table, brushing his fingers over Jake’s arm as he walks past him in a silent command to follow. Jake complies, wishing he could just entangle his fingers with Zack’s. He supposes they’ll need to talk about this—whatever this is—and the limits on it later.

Zack stops in a rarely used hallway, waiting for Jake to stop as well and meet his eyes. “It occurs to me that I don’t know what you told the rest of the team. Obviously, it seems that the training staff and management knows something, considering how Ryan didn’t bat an eyelid at my injuries and Torey told me that they were all there for me if I needed to talk.”

“We told the team that you were dealing with a personal emergency. I think that’s all the media knows, too,” Jake says. Given how unlikely it is that anybody else comes upon them, he lets himself reach out and take Zack’s hand. “We had to tell management so we could spend our time looking for you, but they’re not gonna do anything bad to any of us.”

“I know.” Zack nods and squeezes Jake’s hand. “They’re not shitty, that’s half the reason I signed here.”

“Good. How’s Ellis?”

Zack sighs. “He’s upset. He’s mad at the Dodgers. He said he doesn’t blame me, but if it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have gotten traded in the first place.”

“That doesn’t make it your fault. It’s still just the Dodgers’ fault for being anti-magic bigots.”

“Yeah. I guess.” Zack squeezes Jake’s hand once more before letting go. “You need to get ready for the game.”

“Right. Yeah.” Jake closes his eyes for a moment, trying to shift his focus back to baseball. It seems so trivial after everything that’s gone on the past four days. But after they play, he can go home with Zack.


	12. Chapter 12

The beat the Reds. Jake’s more relieved than actually happy about the win, because all he really wants is to go home with Zack and talk about this thing between them. And maybe to kiss Zack more. Zack seems to agree, if the way he’s leaning against Jake’s locker when he gets out of the shower is any indication.

“Want to get dinner?” Zack asks.

“Oh! Yeah, sure,” Jake says, a little taken aback. He’d expected that Zack would want to go home right away, but he can do dinner.

“Great. I’ll drive us there.” Zack retreats to his own locker, leaving Jake frowning after him. Zack obviously knows that Jake had driven to the field alone, so why does he want to drive Jake to dinner? Unless—Zack intends for this to be a date?

\---

Zack parks at Chipotle, so Jake’s pretty sure that means this isn’t a date. Which is fine. Getting dinner before heading home is good anyways.

“What do you want?” Zack asks him, hand brushing over Jake’s back as they walk towards the counter. It’s late enough that there aren’t many people there, but Jake’s surprised at the touch.

“I’m probably just going to get a burrito.”

“Do you want guac?” Zack asks. Jake switches his gaze from the menu to Zack, frowning. 

“I thought you had a vendetta against Chipotle guac now,” he says suspiciously.

Zack lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “I’m not going to get it for me, but I’ll get it for you.”

“You’re buying me dinner?”

Zack flushes slightly and steps forward to order, asking for two burritos, and yes, one with guac. Maybe Jake’s wrong and this is supposed to be more than just dinner?

“We’ll eat in the car,” Zack says, passing Jake his burrito. Jake elects to not argue, just trails after him. 

When Zack hands him a stack of napkins and brushes his fingers against Jake’s for longer than strictly necessary, Jake decides it’s about time to just ask. 

“Do you want it to be a date?” Zack’s flush is even more evident this time, and he’s staring decisively at his burrito. Jake decides to take pity on him and reaches over to take Zack’s hand.

“I’d like that,” he says softly.

“Yeah?” Zack looks way too hesitant, so Jake leans in to kiss him. That startles a laugh out of Zack, which in turn makes Jake smile. 

\---

Jake makes his first start post-kidnapping five days after Ellis had been traded, in San Francisco. The lacerations around his wrists have all but healed and he acts like nothing had happened, brushing it off as a family emergency when other teammates ask, but Jake can tell he’d been deeply rattled by the incident. He hasn’t spent a single night in his human form or without Jake, and much as Jake loves the time with Zack and seeing Zack be openly himself, he’s worried.

The progress Zack had seemed to make in being comfortable with the whole team has evaporated since he’d been kidnapped. Jake doesn’t think he’s seen the pitcher initiate a conversation with anybody since getting back.

So naturally Jake’s more than a little worried about Zack getting back on the mound. Sure, pitching is what Zack does best, but if he doesn’t feel like he can trust his team, how’s he supposed to play baseball?

But Zack Greinke apparently exists to prove everyone wrong, including Jake, and he delivers a gutty performance through six innings to get the win. It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t have his best stuff since he only gets one strikeout but a win’s a win. Even if Jake goes 0-for-4 and Zack manages to draw a walk, officially making his offensive stats better than Jake’s for the day.

Regardless of his own playing difficulties, Jake can’t stop smiling through the last few innings of the game. Zack lets Castillo hug him and even gives him a pat on the back in return and smiles. Genuinely smiles. Which is hopefully a sign that he’s going to be really okay.

\---

“Feel good to get back out on the mound?” Jake asks him that night, carding his fingers through Zack’s soft hair as they watch a movie in Zack’s hotel room. Zack hasn’t mentioned changing at all and Jake’s really hoping that they’ve turned a corner, that Zack will spend the night with legs again.

Zack hums in agreement, blinking sleepily up at Jake. “Felt back like normal.”

Hiding his smile in Zack’s hair as he presses a kiss to the top of his head, Jake reaches down to squeeze Zack’s hand. “I’m glad,” he says simply. He just wants Zack to be happy. He wants to kiss Zack all the time and to see Zack win every game he starts and he wants Zack to never have to worry about being targeted because of his heritage.

“You know,” Zack says quietly, rolling over so he can pause the movie. “It’s amazing how…how different this organization is. I know the Dodgers are after me and I just…you know, but I feel like I don’t have to worry around you guys. The Royals aren’t big fans of mermen and the Brewers had no other obviously nonhuman players and the Dodgers actively threatened me because of who I was. They hated me and they hated the other few guys who weren’t human and I was…so stressed all the time that they’d do something to me.”

“And now?” Jake asks, still stroking through Zack’s hair as calmly as possible. God, fuck the Dodgers. Fuck their archaic views and fuck them for damaging one of the best people Jake’s ever met.

“Now…the team knows about you and David and they don’t seem to care. And you kept pushing to be my friend even when I was really rude to you. And the three of you risked yourselves for me,” Zack says. “Merpeople don’t really have families. I haven’t seen my parents since I was a small child and I don’t know if I have siblings; it’s just not a concept we have. But I feel like maybe I’m starting to get a family here.”


	13. Chapter 13

“So, Kersh really wants me to stay with him while we’re in LA,” Zack says, tail flashing as he floats next to Jake. 

“Yeah?” Jake swims over to flop his legs over Zack’s tail, letting his boyfriend hold him up.

“I think he feels bad about what happened,” Zack says quietly. It takes a Herculean amount of effort to keep back his snort at that, because of course Zack would refer to being kidnapped so casually.

“Yeah? And have you stopped feeling guilty about it, then?”

Zack has the decency to look abashed, but he doesn’t deny it. “Anyways, I think I’d like to take him up on his offer. Do you want me to ask if you can stay too?”

“Oh,” Jake says, surprised. He’d expected for Zack to ask if he was alright being apart for a few days, not ask about inviting Jake to stay at his old friend’s place. “I mean, I don’t wanna impose.”

“I’ll ask,” Zack says with a nod. By now, Jake knows him well enough to know that’s the end of the conversation, so he uses the leverage of his legs to flip Zack upside down and immediately swims away while Zack sputters. 

Zack catches up easily, wrapping his tail around Jake’s legs to pin him in place. Jake grins and sends a flurry of bubbles at his face, which barely even make Zack blink at this point.

“Hi,” Jake says innocently, grinning when he manages to dunk Zack. Not that it does anything, considering Zack’s already soaked and can breathe underwater. But it’s the principle of the thing.

“You sure you’re not half demon?” Zack asks dryly, or at least Jake thinks so. His hearing’s slightly impeded by Zack holding his head underwater. It takes several kicks to Zack’s tail to get him to release his grip on Jake, but Jake goes right back underwater in surprise when Zack kisses him immediately when he surfaces.

“If I was half demon, could I do this?” Jake lifts one hand out of the water and casts a quick charm to create light, making the glowing orbs float in front of Zack for a moment before letting them dissipate.

“I don’t know, I’ve never interacted with demons. Maybe that’s how demon magic works.”

Jake makes a face, shivering as he flicks some water at Zack. “Trust me, no. Demon magic is very different.”

“Whatever you say,” Zack says. “Are you cold?”

“No,” Jake lies, flopping over so he can float on top of Zack. He gets that cold water is Zack’s natural habitat, but he wishes Zack didn’t keep his pool quite so cold. After all, Jake’s not entirely water spirit.

“Uh huh.” Zack clearly doesn’t believe him, and he swims across the pool to haul both of them out of the pool. Jake sprawls out on the heated tiles next to the pool, while Zack idly flicks his tail in the water.

\---

It’s surprisingly not as awful as Jake anticipated, staying with the Kershaws. Clayton and Ellen greet Zack with huge hugs, and Ellen hugs Jake as well. It’s nice, too, to see Zack so relaxed in the company of his old friends, especially when Kersh immediately leads them out back to the pool.

Jake doesn’t feel much like swimming, so he grabs a bottle of water from Kershaw’s cooler and settles into one of the lounge chairs. Zack, of course, is already in the pool, swimming laps while Kersh heckles him from the side.

Ellen walks out carrying Cali in a bright blue swimsuit and matching arm floaties, gently bumping her husband with her hip before handing the child over. Cali immediately reaches out for Zack, squirming in her father’s arms.

“Uncle Zack!” she says excitedly, looking up at her father until he hands her over to Zack.

“Hey there, beautiful,” Zack coos, cradling Cali like she’s the most precious thing in the world. “Does my favorite girl want a water ride?”

“Mermaid ride!” Cali says, patting the water and splashing Zack. Zack lifts Cali onto his shoulders, carefully holding on to her as he starts swimming across the pool.

“So.” Kershaw takes the chair next to Jake, but keeps his gaze directed at his daughter. “He seems happy.”

“Zack?” Kershaw nods, and Jake allows himself a smile. “Yeah. He’s gotten a lot happier throughout the season here. I think he’s a lot more comfortable with who he is now, too.”

“And he seems to have made some new relationships,” Kershaw says pointedly, this time glancing over at Jake, who can feel himself flush. “And he’s already making me invite you over, huh?”

“I just want him to be happy,” Jake says, not really sure what Kershaw’s angling for.

“As long as you keep making him happy,” Kershaw says. “And if not, I may not have magic powers like you, but I’d do anything for Zack.”

A gleeful shout from Cali attracts both of their attentions back to the pool, where Zack has Cali sitting on his tail. She seems fascinated by his scales, poking gently at them.

“You’re giving me a shovel talk?” Jake asks, trying not to laugh. He’d had to rescue Zack from being kidnapped less than two weeks ago, and now he’s getting told not to break Zack’s heart.

“Look, I think you and I both know Zack doesn’t trust easily after everything he’s been through. I don’t want you to further screw things up for him.” 

Kershaw’s words sting, especially after how long Jake’s spent trying to get Zack to be happy. But the pitcher doesn’t have a judgmental tone, at least, and Jake gets where he’s coming from. The absolute last thing he wants is for Zack to be unhappy or feel like he can’t trust Jake. When he says as much to Kershaw, the pitcher smiles at him. 

“Good. As long as you keep it that way.”

Kershaw seems done with the conversation, so Jake takes that as his cue to strip off his shirt and jump into the pool with Zack and Cali. Zack immediately turns his smile on Jake.

“Hi Cali, I’m Jake,” he says, introducing himself to the little girl climbing over Zack’s tail.

“Cali,” she responds, pointing at herself.

“It’s very nice to meet you, little lady. Are you and Zack having fun?”

“Fun! Swim!” she cheers, splashing happily.

“Do you want to swim with Jake?” Zack asks her, but she shakes her head and clings to Zack.

Jake laughs and swims closer, treading water next to them. “Hey Cali, do you want to play with a bubble?” he asks, forming one and making it float in front of them. The little girl peeks over at it, face lighting up when she sees it.

“Touch?” she asks, reaching out a hand towards it.

“Yeah, you can play with it,” Jake says, sending it floating a little closer. She reaches out to cup it in both of her tiny hands, eyes wide with wonder. Zack adjusts his grip on her so he can hold Cali with one arm and poke the bubble with his free hand. 

She stares at the bubble in amazement when Zack’s finger goes through it but the water keeps its shape, and she turns her wide eyed gaze on Zack.

“You try,” he encourages her, putting one hand under hers so she doesn’t have to hold it with both hands. Jake tries not to laugh at it, because he can keep the bubble floating anyways, but Zack is frankly adorable with Cali. Which is maybe a thought that he needs to revisit later when he’s alone with Zack.

Cali seems to tire of playing with the bubble after a few minutes, because she lets it drop into the water with a splash and goes back to stroking Zack’s scales. Jake glances over to see both Ellen and Clayton watching the pair with fond smiles, an expression he knows is mirrored on his own face.


	14. Chapter 14

Curled in one of Kershaw’s spare beds with Zack that night, Jake brings up a question that’s been nagging him for far too long.

“So,” he says, keeping his tone carefully light. “You seem to really enjoy playing with Cali.”

Zack smiles, his eyes lighting up. “Yeah, she’s a great kid. And Kersh has been so great to me from the start. They’re basically like my family at this point, you know?”

“Yeah. They seem good for you.” They’re both quiet for a moment, and then Jake speaks again. “Have you ever thought about starting your own family?”

“I know neither of us is human, but I can’t get pregnant, and I don’t think you can either,” Zack says dryly. 

Jake laughs and pokes Zack in the stomach. “Funny. No. But there’s a ton of nonhuman kids out there who need families, and I think you’d be pretty good with them.”

There’s a thoughtful hum from Zack, and a long pause before he speaks again. “I’d never really thought about it before this season. I don’t think I was in a good place for that before now. But even now, I don’t think I’m ready for it. In part because it’s not like I have someone who could stay at home with a kid, but also…I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’m ready for the media attention that would come with adopting a magical kid.”

“That’s fair,” Jake says, although his brain is kind of still stuck on the image of Zack with a kid of his own. Or maybe their own.

“Why, have you thought about it?” Zack asks. It’s Jake’s turn to pause as he considers his answer, and he rolls away from Zack so his boyfriend can’t see his flushed cheeks.

“I have. I’ve always wanted kids, and I’ve always wanted them to be non-human kids, or at least not fully human. But I’ve always wanted to raise them with somebody else, so I’d never really considered doing anything about it until now, really.”

“Oh,” Zack murmurs, sounding a little surprised. “Well. I guess we’ll have to revisit this topic in the future, won’t we?”

“I guess so,” Jake says, rolling back over and pressing a kiss to Zack’s lips. He quite likes the sound of that.

\---

They drop the first game in LA, in particularly brutal fashion. Jake can tell Zack’s angry at himself after giving up 8 runs in less than five innings, but it’s not like the offense contributed much to help him either. Jake knocks in one of their two runs, and it’s not enough, it’s never enough, but it’s better, when they can go back to Kersh’s house and he can see Zack pick up Cali and smile despite the loss.

They’re not going to make the playoffs this year, they all know it, but Jake has hope for the future. Zack’s shown flashes of his usual brilliance and Jake thinks that if he can just have a consistent season next year where he starts off being able to trust his teammates, he’ll go back to dominating. 

So next year. Next year can be their year. Even if Zack also drops his next start to the Giants at home, it’s an improvement. Three runs over six innings, technically a quality start, if not by Zack’s standards. The loss isn’t on him, and Jake makes sure to whisper that in between trading kisses in bed that night.

\---

The day after that loss, when none of them have to be at the park until much later, Goldy shows up at Zack’s house.

“Good morning,” he says cheerfully when Jake opens the door, apparently unsurprised to find him there. “Zack awake? Do you know where his sword is?”

“What?” Jake asks, belatedly remembering to shut the door so Wilsy doesn’t get out and wondering if hallucinations can be caused by not having had coffee yet. Or maybe they’re from drinking coffee in the first place? It might’ve been a good idea to figure out the impact of coffee on a nonhuman body before drinking the stuff every day.

“Hey, Paul,” Zack greets, hair wet after an early morning swim and looking unfairly awake for the ungodly hour. “What can I do for you?”

“You’ve got a functional sword, don’t you?”

Zack takes it in stride, not even blinking as he tells Goldy that he does. Jake, meanwhile, is busy having a mild crisis over the thought of Zack actually wielding the samurai sword sitting upstairs.

“Want to learn how to defend yourself when you’re not in the water? I can teach you to fight and a friend of mine could probably set up something similar to mine, where you can pull it out of a folded space pocket and have access to it whenever you need.”

“Sure,” Zack says, shrugging one shoulder. “That’d be great.”

“Folded space pocket?” Jake repeats, staring blankly at both of his teammates.

Zack pats his hand with a smile. “Don’t worry about it, just have your coffee.”

Jake’s more than happy to do as told, sipping slowly from his mug and trailing after the others outside. The pool area has been tidied since Zack had gotten back, but Jake still hasn’t quite gotten over the shiver that goes down his spine when he looks at it. 

He’s perfectly content to slump in one of the chairs and just watch Zack and Goldy. Instead of summoning Excalibur right away, Goldy takes a few minutes to advise Zack on his grip on the hilt and his stance.

Watching them, Jake wonders how much Goldy retains of his previous life as a king of legend. If his ability to sword fight is just muscle memory or something ingrained in him thanks to being Arthur, would he have the knowledge to instruct someone else on how it works?

Zack’s thought process must be somewhat similar to Jake’s, because as Goldy positions his shoulders, Zack asks, “So, are you doing the same thing your instructors did for you hundreds of years ago?”

Goldy smiles faintly and steps away, Excalibur appearing in his hands a moment later. “Slightly different. Your sword isn’t anything like the one I learned on, but the basic principle is the same.”

“Hang on, shouldn’t he be starting out with a wooden sword or something? What if you hurt each other?” Jake interjects quickly, brain starting to come online at last now that he’s downed a reasonable amount of caffeine. 

“Don’t worry about that,” Goldy says, pressing a hand to his sword and muttering something guttural and completely foreign to Jake. Nothing seems to visibly change, and Jake gives Goldy the same curious look he can see Zack wearing.

“It’s a blunting spell,” Goldy explains. “So it’ll only leave a bit of a bruise at most. I’ll worry about Zack’s blade when he learns more and is able to get close to being able to touch me. Ready to go, Zack?”

“Yes,” Zack says, an intense glint in his eyes that Jake recognizes as him stepping up to a challenge. He clearly wants to prove Goldy wrong and be better with his sword than is expected of him.

Their first match is over before Jake is able to do much more than recognize that it’s started. Goldy had allowed Zack the first move, but before Zack can even get close to Goldy’s body with the sword, there’s a clatter as Zack’s sword lands on the tiles beneath him.

“It takes some getting used to,” Goldy assures him, scooping up Zack’s sword and passing it back. “Again?”

And so Jake spends the next hour watching Goldy absolutely annihilate Zack. Goldy’s absolutely right and Zack doesn’t come close to hurting Goldy, even with the wicked sharp blade he’s wielding. Zack has to be so sore by the time Goldy calls a halt, but he’s grinning broadly.

“I’ll get you next time,” he says, shaking hands with Goldy when the latter makes his sword disappear and holds out a hand. Goldy just laughs and takes the sword Zack holds out to him, promising that he’ll talk to a friend and see what he can do about making it portable.


	15. Chapter 15

The last two months of the season pass by in a blur, between baseball, spending his time with Zack, and watching Zack and Goldy train nearly every day at swordfighting. Every time he watches the two of them go at it, he’s intensely glad for his magic being a better line of defense than a sword, because it seems like way too much work. By the last week of the season, Goldy’s starting blunting Zack’s blade for practice, but he’s still not in much danger of actually being dealt a significant blow.

And swordfighting might not be the activity for Jake, but damn if it isn’t hot to watch Zack pull a sword out of thin air and duel with Goldy until they’re both soaked in sweat and gasping for breath. Not to mention the peace of mind that comes with knowing Zack’s better able to defend himself these days.

\---

The Dbacks aren’t going to the playoffs, and they all knew it much earlier in the season. The Giants and Dodgers are both miles ahead of them, and Jake can’t help but feel a little bitter about how soon things are going to come to an end. Standings aside, it’s been the best season of his life and he’s not ready to lose out on sharing a house with Zack most nights and getting to freely use his powers whenever he wants. Four and a half months between the end of the regular season and when they’ll both be at spring training, which means four and a half months of likely not seeing Zack every day. And that’s provided neither of them get traded, which is all too possible in Jake’s case.

He’s determined to make the best of the little time he has left with Zack, so they’re in the pool just about as much as they’re home, trading back and forth water magic and lazy kisses in the bright Arizona sun.

\---

The last day of the season dawns, bright as usual and too early in the season for Jake to be happy with it. At least it’s a home game so he can go home with Zack after and look forward to a better year next year. 

They drive into the park together, Zack taking a moment in the parking lot before they get out to kiss Jake.

“You’re gonna kill it today,” he says firmly. “Send us off on a good note, okay?”

“Okay,” Jake agrees, leaning in for another kiss before Zack pulls away. He shakes his head at Jake with a faint smile when Jake tries for one more, instead reaching across the car to open Jake’s door for him.

They split up when they get into the park, Jake heading off to begin his pregame routine and Zack going to talk to some of the pitching staff. 

Since it’s October in Arizona, it finally feels like baseball weather to Jake. He’s not melting the moment he steps onto the field, and he has a really good feeling about this game. They’re gonna end the season on a win streak and a good note and give the fans something to come back next year for.

They go back and forth with the Padres through the first few innings, the game staying low scoring and honestly, a little bit boring. Until the bottom of the eighth, when Drury hits a homer to tie the game and the dugout explodes. Jake’s frustration over his strikeout evaporates the moment he can tell the ball’s leaving the yard, and he pulls Goldy, coming back down into the dugout, into a tight hug.

“Hell yeah!” Goldy yells into his ear, nearly deafening Jake, but he can still barely hear it over the roar of the crowd. Apparently the fans are just as excited as the team is.

Jake doesn’t have another chance to bat before the end of the game, but it’s okay, because Gosselin walks it off for them and they all flood onto the field. The team piles onto Gosselin, and Brito, for scoring the winning run. Jake tries to ignore the faint bittersweet feeling of winning when it ultimately doesn’t matter and can’t get them any closer to the playoffs, let alone the World Series. A win’s a win, and he’ll take it.

Back in the locker room, before they all start to get changed and showered and packed up for the winter, Goldy whistles to get everyone’s attention.

“Hey, I know this hasn’t been the season any of us wanted, but I couldn’t ask for a better group of teammates. And we ended the season on the right note, we’re gonna build on that and kick some ass next season. So what do you all say we take some time to celebrate this, go for a dip?”

“Pool party!” David yells, flinging open the locker room door. “Let’s go!”

Jake hangs back to walk with Zack, twining their fingers together. “You okay with this? You don’t have to go.”

“No, I think it’s time.”

Zack smiles over at him, so Jake tries not to be worried about what he means by that. As long as Zack’s happy.

By the time they get out to the pool, half the team’s already in the water, so Jake lets go of Zack’s hand in order to cannonball in right next to David. He’s startled by a splash a moment later right next to him, then Zack surfaces next to him.

“Hey—” Jake starts to say, but he’s startled into silence a moment later by the familiar brush of a tail against his legs. “Zack, are you—” 

He’d figured Zack would get into the water and stay a little bit, for as long as he could stand not changing, not that he’d change in front of the entire team.

“Holy shit!” he hears somebody say, maybe one of the September callups, and the it seems like the whole team is looking at them. And Zack—Zack’s not recoiling under the attention, frantically trying to change back, instead he’s offering the team a shy smile. Shy, but confident in who he is and that his teammates will accept him.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you enjoyed!


End file.
